Month:

How do Forces Work?

  • September 9

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

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

How tall is the sculpture?

  • September 9

A high school student at Hockaday School created a campus STEM walk for elementary students to enjoy. In this walk stop, she stops at a tall sculpture that contains glass shapes created by Hockaday students and invites us to estimate the height of the sculpture and also to estimate the total number of glass shapes on the sculpture using some math detective work!... CONTINUE READING

What is the golden ratio?

  • September 9

A high school student at Hockaday School created a campus STEM walk for elementary students to enjoy. In this walk stop she explores the golden ratio that she sees in the dance studio on campus.... CONTINUE READING

How many tiles are there?

  • September 9

A high school student at Hockaday School created a campus STEM walk for elementary students to enjoy. In this walk stop, she comes up with a strategy for estimating the total number of tiles making up a walkway on campus.... CONTINUE READING

How does the pendulum move?

  • September 9

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

How long is the spiral?

  • September 9

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

How Do You Create Your Own Labyrinth?

  • September 9

Dr. Glen Whitney, founder of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York and walkSTEM advisor discusses the differences between a labyrinth and a maze and poses the math questions that directly relate to the design of a labyrinth, which is a winding path that never repeats, and yet has only one route that can take you from the outer edge to the center. How do you design a labyrinth? How many different labyrinths could there be or is this the only one?... CONTINUE READING