See you at MoMath!

J JEvents, MuseumLeave a Comment

Join us a fun Family Friday, 10 January 2020 at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City! Pentagonal Pursuit: Solving a Century-Old Tiling Problem — Explore the many types of tessellating tiles and decorate your favorites. Take away stories, art and patterns to inspire more discovery at home. Register now to save your spot! Follow us on Instagram

Educator Night at The Thinkery

Josephine ShengCommunity Partnerships, Intern Experience, Teacher Support & TrainingLeave a Comment

MathHappens Interns Josephine Sheng and Viyang Shah had the opportunity to try out an activity on Freese’s Dissections at The Thinkery’s Educator Night on October 17th, 2019. They had a great time interacting with educators in the Austin area and demonstrate to them how math can be approachable and fun. Some even said they’d leave their personalized puzzles at their

A 119 Year Quest to Understand Tessellating, Convex, Irregular Pentagons

Michelle TatCommunity Partnerships, Conference Presentations, Library, Museum, Nature & Science Center, Parks & Recreation, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

The idea for MathHappens to work with tessellating pentagons originated from intern Jason Gorst’s suggestions for future projects on his final report. A tessellation describes an arrangement of shapes that tiles a plane with no gaps or overlaps.The challenge of finding all possible tessellating pentagons was issued in 1900 by David Hilbert at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris

MathHappens @ Austin Museum Day- You are Invited!

Lauren SiegelCommunity Partnerships, Events, History Connections, Intern Experience, Museum, Nature & Science Center, Parks & Recreation, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

In this photo Ximena Mercado Garcia has items from each Museum Day math station on the table to share with Univision and their viewers. Las matemáticas también pueden ser divertidas. ¡Únete y descúbrelo tu mismo! Sarah Bacca is sending this note with all the details to teachers, principals and schools.  We hope everyone gets the word! Dear Math Enthusiasts,  

Take and Make: Mathematical Origami

Lauren SiegelMaking Math, Take and Make, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!2 Comments

I want the files now! We attended the MOVES Conference at the Museum of Mathematics in New York this summer.  Main topic?  Mathematical Origami.  There is a lot going on with capabilities to weaken materials and facilitate folding with lasers and other precision devices.  Robert Lang and Eric Demaine are both experts and innovators in this area and they spoke

15 Tessellating Pentagons Project

Lauren SiegelMaking MathLeave a Comment

We are very excited to have our first batch of all 15 Pentagons!  Thanks to Parker Dewey intern Jason Gorst for having this idea back in January.  We have since celebrated Marjorie Rice and her contribution to the pentagon project, and it inspired a whole series on tessellation that we have brought to schools, the library, the Thinkery, the Nature