Mathspig just loves this Fluid Geometry Mural by artist Clint Fulkerson. Here is a Speed Clip of Flulkerson at the University of Maine Art Gallery 2012.
Mathspig went crazy trying to produce her own Fluid Geometry Mural. These guys are artists. But your middle school maths class can use a simple method (See GIF below) and make a fab mural on a white/black board or down a school hallway. This is a great end of year/semester/pre-holidays project.
The reason for tackling such a project is to engage students, who are otherwise not interested in maths as well as do some whole school PR for maths. The mural WILL be noticed. And it makes maths look COOL.You will find more interesting Fluid Geometry works by Clint Fulkerson here.
Mathspig loves this ‘Street Art’ time lapse clip made by projective geometry students at the Technical University, Munich.
SO … thought Mathspig … lets do it! Two days later Mathspig’s eyes nearly crossed trying to locate the Vanishing Point (below), which helps artists draw 3D images. It didn’t work due to the angle of elevation of the camera.
SO .. rethink needed. (See project 1 & 2 below)
Maths Meets Street Art:
Project 1
Students can draw this ‘hole in the earth’ by Circle/Line Art School on paper fairly quickly. The aim here is to practice 3D street Art.
Maths Meets Street Art:
Project 2: The BIG ONE
Students can draw this ‘concrete hole’ by MiltonCor on paper using a ruler, set square and pencils. Then they have to scale it up to a size large enough for them to sit on the steps. The class can the ‘concrete hole’ in chalk in the school yard. Basic shading only is required, not the shading detail shown in this video.
Finally, students can take a photo of themselves sitting on the ‘steps’ with maths books beside them.
Here is the AMAZING thing … according to designer Tom Wujec, who gives the TED lecture (below), the most successful tower builders are not business school graduates or CEOs, but kindergarten students. The stats are in the video. So here is the challenge. Can you build a structure higher than the towers built by kindergarten kids?
Towers built by Kindergarten Kids AVERAGE HEIGHT = 71 CM or 28 INCH
HIGHEST TOWER from 70 challenges = 99 CM or 39 INCH
The Tom Wujec TED talk is aimed at business ‘team building’. Nevertheless, it is an interesting challenge and fun too.
TAKE 2:
In fact, the Marshmallow Tower has been around for a very long time. This challenge for middle school kids involves as many marshmallows and sticks of spaghetti needed to build the biggest tower. This is also a great end of year/semester/week challenge.
Mathspig posted this picture of an awesome marshmallow tower here.
The maths that proves that the 45 degree angle is the angle that produces the maximum distance travelled is quite tricky and involves trigonometry. But this just shows how cool maths can be. See the full calculations here.
Here are some worksheets on MEAN, MEDIAN and MODE for middle school students. It also involves work with units (Metric/USA). But these are real numbers and the distances that 14 year olds can spit watermelon seeds is amaaaazing!
You can find the free pdf worksheets (included below) here.
Other fun middle school math(s) worksheets in the Hot Heels series at TpT include Unit Rates, Angles, Ratios and Algebra.
Ask volunteers to see how far they can spit a seed. (WARNING: The volunteer must breath in through their nose before they spit. You don’t want them inhaling a seed.)
You can find the free pdf worksheet (included below) here.
Other fun middle school math(s) worksheets in the Hot Heels series at TpT include
Unit Rates, Angles, Ratios and Algebra.
There is a lot of maths and science behind coffee sloshing in a coffee mug. ‘The human stride has almost exactly the right frequency to drive the natural oscillations of coffee’ explains fluid physicists at the University of California at Santa Barbara. You will find their full explanation here.
You will find more interesting Fluid Geometry works by Clint Fulkerson here.
