In 2012, I helped organize activities leading up to a late-November Math Fair at the River Valley Waldorf School. The pictures below show some of the fun we had all year long.
Beginning in April, middle school students started a weekly after-school Math Club that continued up to the Math Fair. I led them through many fun hands-on mathematical topics: algebra via Balance Benders; Sudoku and Kakuro; 2-player games like Nim and Hackenbush; Euler’s formula for polyhedra; probabilities determined by Pascal’s Triangle; and many more. Some of these ideas formed the bases of Math Fair activities, with the Math Club students as the activity leaders.
Professor Elizabeth McMachon (Lafayette College) visited in May to introduce finite geometry via the game of SET. She also challenged the students to play two games of SET against her. She’s really good at the game, so it was a great accomplishment for the students to play her to a tie! It helped that the students had practiced well for several weeks (and it helped even more that five of the students were playing against her at the same time).
Professor Daina Taimina (Cornell University) visited in early October. She led the grade school students through a project of building paper hyperbolic surfaces and showed them many of her fabulous crocheted models. One of the grandparents at the school was inspired by the visit to make her own crocheted hyperbolic surfaces, which were on display at the Math Fair.
The whole project really didn’t end until January 2013 with a middle school visit to the new Museum of Math in New York City: after making their own Math Fair, the students were able to visit a permanent professional one!
The Math Fair and all of the activities surrounding it were generously supported by an MAA Dolciani Mathematics Enrichment Grant.
(August 8, 2013)