Math Circles

Last weekend I was in DC for the Circle on the Road conference on Math Circles.  I loved the activities that I saw and participated in -- they challenged students to think about, struggle with, and solve interesting math problems in a group setting.  The ones I saw were a great way to help students become mathematical thinkers and problem solvers.

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak about the activities that The Somerville Mathematics Fund uses in our Scrapheap Showdown.  It was nice to hear that others were interested in what we are able to do in our annual engineering challenge for Somerville high school students.  If you haven't read about our adventures, scroll down in this blog to past posts or go to our post about Jamming in the Junkyard.  I always love to share what we do and offer to work with and share ideas with others who want to try this in their own communities.  It was nice to have suggestions from others on where we might get inspiration for designing our problems.

I was invited to speak on Friday, but stayed for the whole conference.  I benefitted from others sharing their ideas from their own work with math circles, some with various ages of children and some with teachers.  Following my talk was a math challenge using the Euclidean Algorithm for GCD that we all participated in.  Then a panel of students who have had experience leading Math Circles.

Saturday they held a math fair at the Ridley Center at the Smithsonian.  There were games and puzzles lining the hallway.  In the classrooms were hour-long age-identified activities/lessons from math circles.  I went to one which took the classic Knights & Liers logic puzzles and brought them down to a level that elementary children were solving them.   I assisted with a Blue Eyed Island logic problems session -- another nice way to act out logic problems for elementary children.

Sunday was more discussions and panels sharing opportunities for children and teachers, math summer opportunities and information on evaluation of math circles.  It ended with Dr Gordon Hamilton sharing his wonderful challenging activities for children of all ages based on some of the unsolved mathematical problems.  He has a website, the Math Pickle where he shares his materials.

There are some exciting things happening in Math Circles around the country and if you'd like to find one, check out the website list.  The talks from the conference are going to be posted on the conference website.  Check back there later to see for yourself.

I am pleased that there is a math circle at Tufts for Somerville students.  I understand there is another one in Somerville, possibly at the Argenziano School, but I have not been able to confirm this or find out how to contact the person who is running it.

SPROUTS, a wonderful place for exploring math and science in Somerville -- check it out!

by Alec Resnick 

Sprout is an educational nonprofit which is starting up 

its first big season of programs in the next few weeks.

You can find a full listing at the programs;theprograms 

as well as more information about their open studios in 

Davis Square ourstudios.  What follows are some short 

descriptions of their math- and science-focused programs 

appropriate for both youth and adults in the area.  

Significant financial support is available, so if you'd 

like to make arrangements (or if you have any other 

questions), feel free to email Alec Resnick at
alec@thesprouts.org.

- EXPLORING MATH THROUGH COMPUTATION, AND VICE VERSA
turtlegeometry is a thirteen-week, hands-on seminar 

exploring how we can actively and personally explore 

questions of computer science, topology, and 

differential geometry using the programming languages 

Ruby, Processing, and Scratch.  In particular, this 

course will focus on exploring and unifying the 

aesthetic and computational aspects of these fields. 

No formal background in computer science or math beyond 

basic comfort with algebra is required.  There will be 

three tracks: one for educators and parents, one for youth, 

and one for a general audience.  Email Alec at
alec@thesprouts.org; if you have any questions or check 

out the seminar site turtlegeometry; for more details.

- ECOMODDING YOUR HOME eventbrite is a two month
seminar focused on identifying and implementing simple 

strategies to reduce electricity consumption. In this 

seminar, we'll use a special power strip developed at 

sprout. This power strip enables you to see how and 

when your appliances use electricity and ensure they 

only use electricity when you want them to--whether 

that means turning off your TV's standby mode 

while you're at work or dimming your lamp when its 

sunny outside.  This is accomplished by programming 

the microcontrollers which control the power strip--

a skill participants will be introduced to through 

this seminar.  No background in electronics or 

programming is required.

- FLUTES AND WAVES flutesandwaves is a weekend 

workshop in which participants will build their own 

flutes and begin to explore the acoustical qualities 

of those instruments.  Interested participants will 

have the chance to exlpore how their flute design 

affects their instrument's acoustics using a spectrum 

analyzer and working to understand the underlying 

physics of what's going on inside the flute. 

Instrument design is an amazing mix of craft and 

science--despite how much we know, we don't know 

much about how the finer points of instruments' 

sound work. This is a two-day workshop and studio 

(10AM-4PM on two, consecutive Saturdays) exploring 

how flutes are made, and how their design controls 

what sorts of sounds they can make.  This workshop 

is appropriate for people coming at it from the 

musical, acoustical, or simply interested perspectives. 

Email shaunalynn@thesprouts.org if you have any 

questions.

- DIGITAL GARDENING dg.eventbrite is a one day 

workshop coordinated by Keith Simmons, co-designer 

of the Wireplant microcontroller kit. Hosted at the 

MIT Museum, this workshop leads participants through 

the basic electronics and practical skills needed 

to understand and assemble an Arduino-controlled 

moisture sensor which lets you explore sensing 

and measurement in gardening.

- SIMULATION AND NATURE IN DESIGN nervous.eventbrite

is a thirteen-week, project-driven seminar exploring 

how computation and simulation can be used to take 

inspiration from the processes and phenomena of the 

natural world to produce physical and virtual

objects. Facilitated by Jesse Louis-Rosenberg 

(co-founder of the Nervous System n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com 

design studio), this seminar will explore how we can 

understand natural forms—from leaf venation 

to the growth of coral—with computational tools.  

Email jesse@n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com if you have any 

questions or check out the seminar site 

n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/education for more details.

Spring is here and so are More Math Nights!

If you haven’t attended or volunteered at a math night, you’ve missed out on a wonderful intergenerational event. For years, I’ve tried to attend these events when I know about them ahead of time. In March, I was able to get to at least part of the West Somerville Neighborhood School celebration but, unfortunately, not to the East Somerville Community School celebration. Of course, I attended the celebration of Pi described in this blog below in “The Somerville Community Celebrates Pi Day” since I was one of the co-planners of that evening.

However this year, Delia Marshall was able to get to each of these events and has written about them on the Somerville Journal website . The West Somerville Neighborhood School K-2nd family math night, organized by Annette Bassett, was “packed to the gills.” One could hardly move around the cafeteria were kids were intently playing mathematical games with parents and a few grandparents. There was excitement in the air as the children tried to teach their parents how to play. All the activities were mathematically based--everything from using basic counting and computational skills to geometry to strategy. You can read all about it, “Big Numbers at WSNS Night” in the article by Delia Marshall.

The next day, the East Somerville Community School held its celebration of math for 3rd and 4th grade families organized by Linda Wiegenfeld and Laura Bonnell. This well-attended event had a slightly different format. While the students played mathematical games and worked on mathematical challenges, the parents learned about their children’s math --contrasting it to their own experiences and learning how to help their children now. This reminded me of one of the first math grants The Somerville Mathematics Fund awarded, back in 2001 to Mary McClellan for a mathematical resource lending library for middle school parents at the East Somerville Community School--parents wanted, but weren’t always sure, how to help their children in mathematics, today’s math was so different from their own school experiences--a different creative response to a similar problem. Last year I attended the ESCS math event and, if this was anything like that afternoon, it was an experience well-worthwhile for everyone ... high energy excitement about mathematics. Delia Marshall captures the spirit and details of the event in “March Mathness” at ESCS.

At each of these events, many teachers at each school came out and volunteered their own time for an exciting math event outside of the regular school day which gave families a better understanding of what their children were doing mathematically and how they might help, encourage and play with their children.

If you’d like attend a family math night, there are two events still to occur this spring (readers, please let me know about any others). At least one, I know, always welcomes volunteers; so let me know if you are interested in volunteering (voolich@aol.com).

The Somerville Community Celebrates Pi Day

by Erica Dakin Voolich

At various schools around our city this year, Pi was celebrated a “day early” on Friday, March 13. Technically, Pi Day is March 14th (3.14), and to be more precise, March 14th at 1:59:26.

Students at the West Somerville Neighborhood School in 6th, 7th and 8th grade had activities related to Pi in their classes. The students in the Brown School 6th grade and the Kennedy School 6th through 8th made posters and tee-shirts, wrote and practiced skits or songs or raps and researched Pi in advance. Students kindergarten through eighth grade at the Argenziano School at Lincoln Park celebrated during the day. Finally, the day was capped off with middle students from East Somerville Community School at Cummings and from the Brown School joining the middle school students at Kennedy School (pictures) and numerous high school and community volunteers for an activity-packed family mathematics night (details) at the Kennedy School. The generosity of the Table Talk Pie Company made it possible for everyone, students, parents, teachers, volunteers to go home with their own small pie and the winners of activities to take home a full-sized pie. This final event was sponsored by and coplanned with The Somerville Mathematics Fund.

Among the activities at the Kennedy School Family Mathematics Night were
Displaying the posters created.
Wearing the tee shirts created.
Estimating the size of various circular objects (from the size of lids by feel only to the inside of circles on the gym floor to various balls).
Collecting Data on various targets (circle inscribed in square vs square inscribed in a circle) and toothpick drops (Buffon needle experiment).
Estimating the number of various circular things in jars.
Making Pi buttons to wear.
Finding personal dates of birth in Pi.
Taking a quiz on pi facts.
Predicting the distance a wheel would roll.
Drawing freehand a circle the size of a CD.
Graphing the diameter vs the circumference of a variety of circles.
Predicting volume in a cylinder.
Performing the skits and raps written.

Pi is an infinitely long number that lends itself to celebration by a collection of aficionados in many schools. It is one of those numbers, that even though you can’t possibly write out all of its digits, and for centuries they have been difficult to calculate, it’s basic concepts are simple enough to understand that it lends itself to celebrations on March 14 each year. Web sites are devoted to activities related to Pi for teachers to use and share and also to such π paraphernalia such as tee-shirts, cups, pins hats, etc. Scholarly articles and books along with story books have been written on Pi. This year congress passed a resolution supporting Pi Day and our local Congressman Capuano voted “yes” to encourage the celebration of this important mathematical holiday. Last year, even a local pie shop, Petsi Pies, got involved.

If you are interested in celebrating this holiday next year, contact me at voolich@aol.com. I’m sure there will be something mathematical happening.