Month:

What is the speed of the water?

  • September 9

Ronald Kirk Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the Trinity River in Dallas, connecting downtown Dallas and West Dallas. It is over 2,000 feet long and 60 feet wide. At the Ronald Kirk Bridge, the talkSTEM team found a natural whirlpool in the Trinity River. The video explores a strategy for estimating the speed of water. What other strategies could you use to measure the speed of a liquid? What about objects traveling through air instead of water? At talkSTEM, we know that math isn't always perf... CONTINUE READING

How can we measure arches and lines?

  • September 9

Over 7 million people visit the West End Historic District every year! What if they all stood in line to visit? What would that look like? We use math to help us understand this gargantuan number! This video was supported by City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.... CONTINUE READING

What is the weight of an ice rink?

  • September 9

Ronald Kirk Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the Trinity River in Dallas, connecting downtown Dallas and West Dallas. It is over 2,000 feet long and 60 feet wide. What would happen if water froze on the middle of the Ron Kirk Bridge? Could we create an ice rink on this bridge? talkSTEM members explore this question and estimate how much weight an ice rink would add to the bridge.... CONTINUE READING

What patterns can you find?

  • September 9

Patterns can be found everywhere, including the hallway! talkSTEM joins faculty at St. Philips Academy in exploring the patterns in these colorful tiles. This video was supported by City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Thanks to our partnership with Mathigon, you can enjoy this walkSTEM stop using learning extensions in the Polypad interactive virtual whiteboard. You can visit this stop's Polypad here: Polypad #1... CONTINUE READING

How many people can fit in the gym?

  • September 9

St. Philip's Academy teachers use math to verify or refute the claim that 300 billion people attended a recent basketball game. This video was supported by City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Thanks to our partnership with Mathigon, you can enjoy this walkSTEM stop using learning extensions in the Polypad interactive virtual whiteboard. You can visit this stop's Polypad here: Polypad #1: How many r... CONTINUE READING

What is an Irregular Quadrilateral?

  • September 9

Dr. Glen Whitney, founder of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York and walkSTEM advisor, discusses some of the shapes within the Campanile Window installation at Dallas Love Field airport, and how they’re used to support and integrate the irregularly-shaped windows with the more classically rectangular shapes of the ticketing hall in which they've been hung. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to exten... CONTINUE READING

What Mathematical Differences Do We See?

  • September 9

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

How High Does it Climb?

  • September 9

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

What is Intuitive Wayfinding?

  • September 9

Airports can be bustling places, filled with thousands of people all trying to get to where they need to go all at once. Interior designers can help direct this flow by emphasizing intuitive wayfinding in their work – subtle clues and markers incorporated in a space's design that make navigation easier to naturally understand. In Love Field, this involves patterns in the tiles and ceilings that help guide travelers to where they need to go. This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office... CONTINUE READING