patterns

15
Jan
a rough sketch of a board game

Week 29: Design a Game

This week learners can brainstorm game ideas and test them out with family and friends. Games can be prototyped with paper, clay, cardboard, maker equipment, and/or craft supplies. When I do this with classes, we often play or analyze games that we love prior to designing our own. This allows learne
2 min read
17
Dec
a laser cut black circle with smaller turquoise circles laid on top to make a gasket

Week 28: Apollonian Gaskets

Apollonian Gaskets are a creative way to play with circles, fractals, and mindfulness in math. Students can cut out circles and place them within circles or practice their drafting skills with a compass and ruler. The idea is to draw a large circle and then fit smaller and smaller circles inside as
3 min read
12
Dec
paper woven so that 4 yellow suns repeat with red, yellow and red

Week 27: Patterns in the Paper Weaving

I love fiber arts and weaving. So, I have one more weaving post for this series, but this time it’s with paper. This activity is great for all ages and can be done with ribbon, bias tape or strips of paper. I like to use origami paper strips. The idea here is to play with […]
2 min read
31
Oct
a laser cut rotation tessellation made with black and red tiles

Have you Tessellated today? Rotational Play

I posted on translating tessellations yesterday, and ended up playing with a rotational tessellation on my ipad. I had to laser print it of course and see all the various patterns. I love math!
2 min read
30
Oct
two hands copying a tessellation on paper

Week 22: Tessellations – Paper Method

This week we will do tessellations that fit together through translation (moving without rotation). We will look at reflection and rotation in other weeks. There are a few different ways to do this, but we will use the paper method today. I always start the class by talking about what different kind
2 min read
16
Oct
a wooden inlay of a nonagon with a star  in the center with kites and triangles alternating colors of wood

Week 20: Angles within a circle

This week learners can play with angles with both grand projects and smaller art projects. There are 360 degrees in a circle or 2pi radians. Learners can draw a circle and then mark every 20 degrees (or every 30 or any factor of 360). Factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 15, […]
2 min read
04
Sep

Week 14: Guess the rule – math game

One of my hobbies is to take completely non-math related games and modify them for classes. I don’t know what to call this game, it is probably a variation of “psychiatrist” or something, but here is how it goes: In a group of at least 4 players, ask one player to leave the room and […]
1 min read

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Sophia

Mathematics educator and creative coder exploring the beauty of mathematical concepts through interactive visualizations and playful learning.

Mathematics

Education

Creative Coding