Week 4: Mathematics and the Arts

 

The Bridge Art Activity (2015)

I chose to recreate a variation of John Bell’s Metallic Stacked Icosahedron Frame. From the title and the photograph, I noticed the paper straw and decided to research on YouTube how to make paper straws (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhnqmPTJzg).  One of the nights, taking a break from writing reportcards, I decided to make the paper straws. I cut out strips of paper from an old calendar, glued and rolled the strips with a chopstick, trying my best to keep my fingers cleaned. After an hour and a half, I made 35 straws, breaks included.

 John Bell’s Metallic Stacked Icosahedron Frame

                                                    Making the Paper Straws

                

Two days later, I took the straw and decided to cut them into 9 cm pieces, so I had just enough to make the frame of John Bell’s Metallic Stacked Icosahedron Frame. I had limited amount of chenille stems (pipe cleaners) so used string and a needle (my black head remover) to thread the string through my paper straws to build the structure. I looked at patterns and shapes, counting the number of pentagons and triangles used, as my guide to recreate the art piece.  Once I got my foundation, I was on a roll, and it was fun to see the piece come together.  The string was able to hold the straw together, but I needed the chenille stems to keep the foundation of structure in place. 

In the end I was able to replicate the outside structure of John Bell’s Metallic Stacked Icosahedron Frame. While making the paper straws, in a methodical trans, I wondered if my secondary students would enjoy making these paper straws. To my surprise, the paper straws were sturdy and strong. Ideas flooded in my mind how these paper straws could be use in a math class? Creating jungle gyms, houses, basic shapes, even beading would work.  I had a lot of fun recreating John Bell’s piece, recognizing the critical thinking involved using both my arts and math brain to simultaneously to re-create this magnificent piece of art. The beauty of seeing my finish product was a real accomplishment and I felt proud of it. Way more fun than drawing this 2D on paper.

                            

Spinning Arms in Motion: Exploring Mathematics with the Art of Figure Skating (Berezoski, Cheng & Damino (2016))

              In the spirits of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, I thought it would be fun to read the article on Figure Skating. When I was young, I remember celebrating the moments when Canadian figure skaters: Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Elizabeth Manley, Brasseur and Eisler performed and the sheer excitement and joy I had watching each Canadian figure skater win their Olympic medals.  I was glued to the television, mesmerized by the beauty of their artistic and technical program, from the music choice, the costume, and their physical ability to jump, spin and skate with such ease as if they were dancing on ice.

In Berezoski et al. article Spinning arms in motion: exploring mathematics with the art of figure skating, the authors showed how math and arts can be linked in this case the spin of a figure skater.  With the use of Sketchpad software modeling, this helped pre-service teachers and high school students visualize and understand the stages involved with spinning.  Using a bird’s eye view of the figure skater, calculations involved the change in arm positions and angles involved at different stages of a figure skater’s spin, which affected the speed and number of rotations.  Unfortunately, the lines to the Sketchpad software files were disabled so I was unable to watch the simulation. The paper said that students were able use proportions, trigonometry, and circle geometry to respond to math questions related to the spin of the figure skaters. The context of embodying the math in the sports and art of figure skating was noted.

Going off tangent from the article, because the modelling of the spin simulation was disabled, I decided to ask two of my students to model the figure skater’s spin for me. I posed questions throughout to help me understand the stages of a figure skater's spinning better. 

Student 1 was instructed to enter the spin on his left foot.  I asked, “Will your spin be clockwise or counterclockwise?” He used his entire body to act out the motions of entering a spin with his left foot, and from his naturally movement responded “counterclockwise”. I said “correct.”  I asked him “If you spin faster what happen to your arms?”  He said, “it will come in”. My final question posed was “Which foot will you use to exit the spin?”  He continued acting with his body and exited with his “right foot” to get out of his spin.

With student 2, I told him, he was not allowed to use his body, but to use his mind to respond to the same questions posed to student 1. He ended up struggling, unsure of his answers, which he responded incorrectly.  After his first attempt to the questions, I gave him permission to act out and embody the action of a figure skater’s spin. It was evident he understood the actions better and this time he got the answers correct.

I did this exercise a third time, giving my math department head her freedom to respond however she wanted to the same questions posed to student 1 and student 2. She naturally used her body to simulate the figure skater’s spin, with the correct response.  I was just fascinated at how the 3 participants, embodied the math, using their bodies to act out the spin of a figure skater, really thinking with their minds with their bodies, showcasing their understanding to the questions posed.