Possibilities shaped by constraints of arithmetic

Discussion Board Assignments

Students' contributions to the weekly discussion board conversations on Canvas helped shape the course.

  • Week 1: Introductions and Mathematical Images
    Associated materials:
    Mathematical Imagery Gallery from the American Mathematical Society
    A Mathematician's Lament, by Paul Lockhart

  • Week 2: Prime Spirals and Questions
    Associated material:
    Why do Prime Numbers Make these Spirals? by Grant Sanderson of 3Blue1Brown

  • Week 3: Math Behind the Images

  • Week 4: (Dis)engaging with Math
    Associated material:
    Galaxy Leggings, Truth Serum, and the Visibility Cloak, by Olena Shmahalo, Art Director for Quanta Magazine

  • Week 5: Making "Boring Things" (Like Math) Fun and Relevant
    Associated material:
    You Can Make Boring Things Relevant, by Nina Simon

  • Week 6: Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension
    Associated material:
    Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, by Matt Parker

  • Week 7: Visual Thinking Strategies
    Associated materials:
    Visual Thinking Strategies, by Philip Yenawine
    N.B. The video of our interactive session with Sherri Jones referenced in the Week 7 prompt is available only to the enrolled students. The artwork we discussed with her was Carrie Mae Weems's Color, Real and Imagined, Wassily Kandinsky's Composition VII, and Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Banjo Lesson.

  • Week 8: Prime Time and Making Shapes
    Associated material:
    Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, by Matt Parker

  • Week 9, part 1: Building Inclusive Institutions and Broadening Engagement
    Associated material:
    The following chapters from Nina Simons's The Art of Relevance:
    Some Doors are Invisible
    Start at the Front Door
    People Who Don't Normally Show Up
    Something Old, Something New

  • Week 9, part 2: Examples of STEM Communication
    Associated materials:
    Sharon Savage, Winner Three Minute Thesis
    Vi Hart explains spirals in math
    Neuroscientist Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty

  • Week 9, part 3: Museum Blurb Exercise