BARD MATH CIRCLE

Chalk Walk and Tessellations at the Kingston Library

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Bard Math Circle
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This weekend marked the last meeting of the Bard Math Circle at the Kingston Library for the spring 2012 semester. Bard undergraduates are preparing for finals, seniors will soon be graduating, and Bardians retreat for the summer.

The circle coincided with the Kingston Library’s Chalk Walk, so we planned out a chalk tessellation activity as our hands-on project. We started by learning about symmetries and transformations using Scott Kim’s Half Words activity in pairs, and then everyone designed their own tessellation, based on a square grid.

Heading outside, we grabbed chalk and claimed sidewalk squares on Franklin Street and chalked out our designs. Here’s a gallery of the sidewalk surrounding the library, including our designs.

  https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

After tessellating, we solved the interesting problems and the Bard math majors presented solutions. I’m excited how they’re developing as teachers! They’re learning to engage the students, share multiple strategies, and connect the problems to other contexts. One Bardian is graduating, and will head off to earn her masters in teaching degree and become a math teacher. Next year looks like it will be in good hands with the Bardians who return as seniors.

Check out the last photo, as we celebrated the end of the semester at Boice Brothers Dairy for some delicious ice cream!

Japheth Wood

I’m Japheth Wood (he/him), the Bard Math CAMP co-director, and a math professor at Bard College. CAMP (which is an acronym for Creative and Analytical Math Program) is a very special week of the year for our young math community. It's inspiring to see our students return year after year. This is our 11th summer of CAMP! We're back once again on the idyllic Bard College campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, and thankful to the CAMP students, parents, and staff, for making this mathemagical week happen. Notably, we've (finally) had our first CAMP reunion this past June, an event that I know will grow to be an integral part of what we do.

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Frances Stern

My name is Frances Stern (she/her/hers)! I’ve been teaching math at CAMP since the first year, making sure our math theme has a connection to art and computer. It’s fun to show students math that they don’t see in school. I've retired from daily teaching but continue to teach for the New York Math Circle & students who are seeking more math in their lives. My hobbies include learning to draw, paint, & juggle, reading, walking & folk dancing. I’ve written 2 books for teachers and parents called “Adding Math, Subtracting Tension” (for different age-ranges of children). They pay as much attention to how to keep out of a fight (what many parents told me is a problem) as they do to math.

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