A high school student at Hockaday School created a campus STEM walk for elementary students to enjoy. In this walk stop, she looks at the large pendulum the school is fortunate enough to have.... CONTINUE READING
A high school student at Hockaday School created a campus STEM walk for elementary students to enjoy. In this walk stop she explores a spiral artwork on campus and invites children to estimate the length of the spiral using their math detective skills.... CONTINUE READING
Fair Park, a state and National Historic Landmark, has the largest collection of 1930s Art Deco style architecture in the United States, located on 277 acres. In this video, we briefly discuss what art deco is and how it is related to STEM.... CONTINUE READING
Whether you’re at Fair Park or even driving around certain parts of Dallas, it’s hard to miss the towering site of the Texas Star Ferris Wheel! After all, it’s the largest Ferris wheel in the United States. As you’re watching it turn, there are lots of things you might wonder about, but if you’re like us, one of the first that comes to mind is: How fast is your gondola whisking through the air when you ride it? Join students and faculty from Greenhill School in exploring this question.... CONTINUE READING
Perhaps the most eye-catching feature of Dallas Fair Park is the gold-leaf wrapped Tower Building. Yes, that is real gold! Because of the allure and attraction of gold, we definitely want to ask, “How much is all of that gold on the Tower Building worth?” Before we go through the calculations, stop and take a moment to guess. Is it 1,000 dollars worth of gold? $10,000? A million dollars? Let’s figure it out. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learning for K-12 g... CONTINUE READING
The sculpture Venture, by Alexander Liberman, is composed of several steel tubes, stacked toward the sky. At such a great height, measuring its size by hand can be a challenge; instead visual estimation must be used. Additionally, the shapes comprising Venture are discussed, involving various ellipses and special forms that can even be recreated at home! This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learn... CONTINUE READING
The four individual works that make up Campanile Window have a similar-looking structure to each other, but are not identical. Methods of quantifying some of their differences mathematically are discussed, analyzing color, lines, and interior shapes. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learning for K-12 grade levels are freely available here:... CONTINUE READING
The floor tiles used to make Untitled (Love Field) by Lane Banks only come in four colors, but never allow two rings of the same color to touch. With that in mind, methods of calculating how many permutations – specific, ordered arrangements – of these segments are possible are discussed. This uses the mathematical concept of factorials to practice combinatorics – the study of combinations and permutations. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Suppleme... CONTINUE READING
The sculpture Sky uses a structural system of fiberglass rods to keep all of its components supported and in place. The arrangement of these rods make use of tension and compression forces to spread out weight and and force along the entire structure – something that we can analyze through basic shapes. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learning for K-12 grade levels are freely available her... CONTINUE READING
Martin Donlin’s multi-panel work Blueprint of Flight spans a large portion of the pedestrian walkway wall. By measuring the size of single one of these panel, and multiplying by the number of panels in the work, we can begin to calculate the square footage of the piece as a whole. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learning for K-12 grade levels are freely available here:... CONTINUE READING