What does truncation mean? How is the Times Square Ball related to an icosahedron? Let students learn about the crystals and the LEDs that create this beautiful construction.
The Times Square Ball
Category: Math and Art
Beautiful mathematics
Color, measure, design, Sierpinski, spirals, Pythagorean triples, hexadecimal color codes, fractals, string design, modular math, Pascal’s triangle, Fibonacci, polyhedra, build an eclipse … Enjoy!
Before the holidays (16 activities)
We have tons (well, 16) of activities to bring to your class in this last week before the holiday break. Movies, science, art, cooking, economics, weather and the logic of calendars. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving, shopping, football and giving
How should I cook my turkey? – Students judge timing, cost, tastiness, and quantity necessary as they plan for the feast. 4.MD.1, 5.NBT.7, 4.MD2, 6.RP.3, 6.NS.3, 7.NS.3 Great video on a deep frying fire with William Shatner. Shopping season already! – Students will…
Little Amal
With refugees trying to survive hardships by traveling away from their homes, the story of Little Amal is powerful and touching. There is lots of math in creating an 11 foot tall puppet that can be controlled by 3 people and show fear, surprise, wonder, and generally the humanity of refugees. Bring the story of Amal to your classroom with this timely art.
Hexadecimal coloring
Probably most of us have heard of and even used hexadecimal color codes. Don’t you wonder why their number descriptions really make sense? In this activity we first ask students to color in our Golden Spiral by giving them the…
4th of July
Hot dog eating; Flag art; Fireworks on your calculator; Creating a 5-pointed star with one cut; and a possible new, 52-star flag.
Gauss and our star of stars
Mother’s Day 2022 (14 ideas)
We have 14 possible activities for you to bring Mother’s Day into your classroom. Diapers, chocolate, Mother’s Day spending, surprise breakfast, and more …
Comedian
What do you think this activity might be about? What do you wonder? How much would you pay for this piece of art? How much profit is involved in this sale?
Spring is here (5 activities)
To celebrate spring, we’ve shown our fractal tree coming to leaf and created in Python to see what students can figure out about the instructions of the computer language. More March Madness activities are included. An Excel activity on counting backwards to figure out planting dates. And, a reminder of tick time and the growth of Lyme disease.
Valentine’s Day (11 activities)
Sweetheart candy deals, heart-shaped cake, a cardioid, parametric heart graphing, heart construction, imported roses, and more.
What can you tell about a snowflake?
As a snowflake falls from the sky, its crystal grows according to the humidity and temperatures of the air that it passes through. In this activity, students interpret a graphic that clarifies that growth and try to deduce what conditions…
Betsy Ross’s 5-pointed star
Tree for Springtime
Here in the Northeast, flowers are blooming and trees are leafing out. We thought the creation of a tree that grows before your eyes might be akin to what is going on all around us. What do you see that…