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
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
What are similar triangles and how can we tell if triangles are similar or if they are not? Students and faculty from CityLab High School, Dallas ISD join us on a beautiful day at Fair Park, an architectural treasure trove in the city of Dallas to explore this question using the sights of the Esplanade. Supplementary Activity Guides for this video to extend student learning for K-12 grade levels are freely available here:... 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
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
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 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
The terrazzo World Map in the main lobby provides a fairly accurate representation of the Earth’s surface. Using the lines separating its sections to divide it into quadrants, we can use fractions to estimate the portion of the whole covered by water. Combining these parts back together and comparing it to established numbers should give us and idea of how close we were able to get with our estimation! This video was supported by the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs. Supplementary Act... CONTINUE READING