Week 4: Mathematics and the arts introduction

Weekly Reading

This week both the options for my readings were accompanied by text stating the article is best suited for someone who has music theory background and secondary trigonometry or the other article suits those who are familiar with secondary school trigonometry. As a Grade 2 teacher that does not teach music, I gave it my best attempt!

I chose to read Spinning Arms in Motion: Exploring Mathematic Within the Art of Figure Skating written by Tetyana Berezovski. This article looked at the mathematics involved in figure skating, specifically the arm movements when performing a spin. (Berezovski, Cheng , & Damiano, 2016). The authors integrated information about the most efficient spin position indicated by the Guinness Book of World Records, and how this spin was performed using the upright position (Berezovski, Cheng , & Damiano, 2016). The authors determined that depending on how the arms are placed, skaters can achieve longer spins at higher speeds (Berezovski, Cheng , & Damiano, 2016).

My first stop was connected to the main idea of this article that we as teachers can connect students learning of mathematics with learning a recreational activity or sport. Currently I am teaching my class hockey skills, including stick handling and movement of the puck. This article has made me think about the angles involved in hockey. One of the challenges I am finding is ensuring students keep their sticks low when passing or shooting. I am realizing this is a great opportunity to integrate mathematics and angles and talk about a safe angle when passing or shooting and an unsafe angle.

The authors focused on the angles of the skaters’ arms from a bird’s eye view. This made me think about exposing students to different perspectives and how learning about perspectives in mathematics could connect to learning about respecting perspectives of others in social studies. My school is located on a large hill, I imagine having students sketch shapes they notice from the school site and then again from further up the hill looking down on the site. This activity would allow elementary school students to experience different perspectives and think about how that influenced their understanding of place.

                                                                                                                                  

Introduction, Videos, and Activity

This week I found myself connecting to the introduction and the idea of how society deals with binaries. I think there is opportunity to disrupt this thinking in education by creating lessons that are cross curricular and multimodal. What I mean by this is we can disrupt the idea of what traditional math education looks like by connecting the skill being taught to art or social studies. Then we can provide opportunities for students to show their understanding in diverse ways (art, movement, auditory).

 It was interesting to think about arts and the humanities and I found myself thinking about the separation amongst courses at UBC. When I was looking for elective courses to take, I was often not able to register for courses as they were restricted for individuals in certain programs. Even after emailing and explaining my reasoning for wanting to take the course I was not allowed to register. I think this is an area that needs to change given that in the K-12 system we are encouraging learners to pursue learning that they are curious and interested about. That curiosity and interest shifts when you are not allowed to pursue it.

 I chose to focus in on viewing Separate and together, a rectification hierarchy created by Mircea Draghicescu (click here to see). This piece of art uses recycled objects such as wood veneer, steel wire, and fishing line. The art integrates mathematics through the polyhedral models. I love that this art connects to sustainability as it is created through recycled materials. When I was trying to sketch my own version of this piece, I started to realize how difficult (for me) it was to draw a three-dimensional sphere. This led me to thinking about the importance of allowing students to experience diverse ways of doing math. For example, there are students who are successful and enjoy doing math in traditional ways such as sitting in a desk and solving textbook questions. However, for some students this skill comes easy and does not allow them to struggle. By integrating multimodal math lessons students who might not be challenged or struggle with paper math get to experience productive struggle. This experience would allow them to expand their skill set and develop their approach to managing challenging situations they may encounter in their life.

 

 Works Cited

Berezovski, T., Cheng , D., & Damiano, R. (2016). Spinning Arms in Motion: Exploring Mathematics within the Art of Figure Skating. Bridges Finland Conference Proceedings, 625-628.