A mathematician and the father of one of my students, visited my classroom a few weeks ago via Zoom. Before his visit, I spoke with him about the work I have been doing to broaden their understanding of what mathematics is and what mathematicians do.
This is what occurred.
He began by saying that he is a mathematician but clarified, “we don’t just do addition, skip-counting and things like that.” He asked if anyone knew who Yoda was. Ivan quickly smiled and said, “from Star Wars!” He explained that he helped to make Yoda’s clothes do what they were supposed to do in the movie and that he used math to do this. They wanted to know how and he explained that Yoda’s robe was really a bunch of triangles. The kids began looking perplexed. He then added that a friend of his, who is also a mathematician, made the snow in the movie Frozen. Now they were hooked.
Next, he asked the kids if anyone played video games. A few kids raised their hands. He explained that math is used to make video games and that you write lots of equations to do so. They began discussing super heroes in video games and that some have secret identities or send secret coded messages. He told the kids that he often works on making these secret codes using equations, patterns and symmetry. While the word “equations” was still unfamiliar to my students, their faces lit up when he said the words “patterns and symmetry.” They have had many experiences exploring and making patterns, and they often organically make symmetrical creations and have heard this word.
I shared their delight with him and he said there is lots of symmetry in math and art and that the universe is made with symmetry. He offered the example of our bodies.
The kids were now anxious to start asking him some questions.
Fluorine: Do you write? What kind of writing tools do you use?
Mathematician: I use all kinds of writing tools like markers or pencils. Some mathematicians like to write on windows even!
(The kids laughed at this and were delighted when I said that I have window markers that we can try out!)
Jean: Did you ever use math to make patterns?
Mathematician: Yes, to make movies I use repeated shapes like crystals. I figure out how to make tetrahedrons with other shapes. (He explained that tetrahedrons are pyramids with a triangle base.)
Fluorine: Do you use measuring tools?
Mathematician: Yes, a lot of the tools I use are on computers. When I want to model something, like a character in a movie, I use a computer. Sometimes lasers are used to scan real world objects to represent them with shapes in a computer. For example, a bunch of triangles or 3D tetrahedrons make characters in animated movies.
[The kids were smiling and enjoying this conversation.] He added, math is fun! It touches more and more of the world.
Alejandra: How do you make a yeti? [she is referring to the children’s movies with this character]
Mathematician: A bunch of springs were used to make the fur in these movies.
Alejandra: The ground turns into a wave [in these movies].
Mathematician: When you see waves in movies, they are done with math!
Ava: Is everything in nature made out of math?
(We were nearing the end of their attention span and I almost didn’t let her come up to ask one more question. I was so thrilled that I did because what a lovely question.)
Mathematician: It is almost amazing that math describes the way the universe works.
While this was very intriguing to me, along with a reference he suggested, (Reference 1) the kids were nearing the end of their attention span and so we wrapped things up at this point which was about 30 minutes!
A few days later, I had the opportunity to individually ask students what they learned from our guest, or what they were surprised by. Many responses described surprise about mathematics being used to make movies or video games. They were intrigued that math was used to make effects like clothes or water moving. Many students also mentioned math in nature and expressed a desire to explore this more. Fortunately, our next Project [as part of The Project Approach] will be a nature project! There will definitely be some rich opportunities to explore mathematics in nature.
As I reflect as their teacher, I am struck by some of their questions. They reflect a growing understanding of what mathematics entails as they include things about measurement, tools and patterns. They made connections to nature and kept wanting to ask more questions. The discussion around movies and video games also immediately expanded where they understand math to touch.
I can’t wait to see what happens next in the real life movie of my sprouting mathematicians.
Reference:
1 -- “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,” a 1960 article by the physicist Eugene Wigner.
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