Workshop Announcement and Escher Sketch

We’ve got exciting news this week; we’re opening registration for our inaugural summer math program! It will consist of free workshops for high school students (entering 9-12) to work with the math activities we’ve been developing. It will run from ten to noon on Saturday mornings starting in July and running through August. Keep an eye on our website for the “Summer Program” tab, going up later today, where you’ll be able to find the registration form.

A big question that we’ve worked with in the past week is what it means to decide what mathematics is or is not ‘developmentally appropriate’ for students at different grade levels. Teachers are given checklists to go through in the classroom each year of skills and concepts that students should be able to master. Bigger picture ideas are often avoided because they are admittedly harder to handle. In other academic subjects, ideas are often introduced that are well above the level of what could be produced or fully understood by the class.

A goal we’re working towards with our math activities is to bring the structural beauty and complexity of mathematics to the high school classroom. Computer programs are a useful tool in scaffolding concepts that may be more complicated mechanically than students could access on their own. Doing the mechanical calculations in the background allows for a more immediate connection to bigger picture ideas in math.

One such program is called Escher Sketch, available here. M.C. Escher was a Dutch artist well known for his optical illusions and tessellations and this program allows you to emulate his geometric tiling patterns with your own art. It makes it simple to create your own tessellations — patterns made up of geometric shapes that tile the plane without gaps or overlap.

The program allows you to pick the kind of symmetry you’d like to exhibit and at the same time copy it into a tiling. It has the potential to be a helpful tool in building understanding of transformation and symmetries. This is one of the ideas we’ll be working with more as we get further into the summer.

Peter Taylor Quote of the Week: “Asking the right questions is the hardest thing.”