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Jasper

Mathematics

Sculpture Title:

Jasper

 

Learning Lens:

Approaches to Learning

 

Curriculum Access:

Mathematics

 

BIG IDEA:

Measurement and Calculation

 

Guiding Question:

How are materials and product related?

 

Strategies and Approaches:

Collaboration; measurement; estimation; formulas; assessment of information collection method; how to collect data, where to get data from.

 

Background for Students:

In this piece the artist uses materials to create different shapes and forms. Referencing the artist’s work, math teachers have created curriculum challenges that incorporate art. Learn More.

 

Materials:

Measuring tapes, calculator, paper, pencils

 

Curricular Challenge:

15-20 mins, Open/Reflect: Welcoming Multiple Interpretations

  1. Students are encouraged to disengage from their recent experience and their busy surroundings to practice mindfulness.
  2. Direct students to ‘mindfully’ (quietly/individually) explore the piece and develop their own interpretation. More information on mindfulness for the classroom can be found here.
  3. Direct each student to share their interpretation of the piece without judgement.
  4. Connect students’ individual interpretations to the background information provided above.

35 mins, Two Part Activity Mathematizing Art

Part I – Math Problem Calculation

Direct groups to complete the following measurements:

  1. Choose the best place to measure the diameter of a cylinder that makes up the sculpture. Why did you choose to get it from there? Diameter:_____
  2. If you had a cylinder with the height of 1cm and the above diameter what would the volume be?
  3. There are two joints that connect the three pieces of the sculpture. Find the length and record for each piece as: piece 1, piece 2 and piece 3.
  4. What is the total length of the sculpture?
  5. Use the information from Step 2 and Step 4 to find the volume of the sculpture.
  6. Review answers utilizing answer key listed below.

Part II – Interviewing the Public on Robson St.

Find a different person to answer each of the following questions correctly (when applicable). Answer key listed below. Debrief what they have learned when completed.

1. Name a famous mathematician.

2. What’s the Pythagorean theorem?

3. What’s -4-2?

4. What’s 1/3+1/2?

5. What do you remember most from high school math?

6. Who was your best math teacher and why?

7. What is radius?

8. What’s the probability of picking a king from a deck of cards (52 cards)?

9. Who was the worst math teacher you had and why?

10. Count backwards by seven starting at 50.

Answer Key:

Part I – Math Problem Calculation

1. Best place to measure diameter is at a cylinder end that is ‘cut’ perpendicularly and not at an angle. We measured a diameter of 22.5 cm or radius of 22.5 / 2 = 11.25cm

2. Volume = (Area of base) x height = (Area of circle) x height = (π x radius2) x height = (3.14 x 11.252)x 1 = 3.14 x 126.6 x 1 = 397 cm3

3. From smallest piece to largest piece (our numbers are estimates , as will be the students’)

Piece 1= 299 cm Piece 2 = 730 cm Piece 3 = 1649 cm

4. 2678 cm

5. 2678 x 397 = 1063166 cm3 = 1.06 m3

Part II – Interviewing the Public on Robson St.

1. Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euler, Gauss, Newton, Pascal, Hilbert, Klein, Ramanujan, Euclid, Leibniz, Fermat, Descartes, Fibonacci, Cantor, etc

2. a2 + b2 = c2 OR if you build a square on each of the sides of a right triangle, the sum of the smaller two squares will equal the largest square

3. -6

4. 5/6

5. Answers may vary

6. Answers may vary

7. Half the diameter OR half way across a circle OR distance from the centre of a circle to the outside

8. 4/52

9. Answers may vary

10. 50, 43, 36, 29, 22, 15, 8, 1