This past Saturday, June 14, was the culmination of the weeks long Mass Creativity, a community wide arts program organized by the New Children’s Museum of San Diego. Admission to the museum was free that day, and it was an opportunity to welcome more families to the newly opened Math Room. The Math Room takes place in the Innovator’s Lab of the museum every Saturday from 10a to 2p, and it is run by the Mathhappens Foundation.
I would define “math creativity” in the context of the math room as (1) the use of mathematical principles to create objects (2) using mathematical objects as part of a multi-media art installation. I saw math creativity on full display from the elementary school children who spend time in the room— as well as their parents.
This is my favorite picture from the day, taken by Rebekah Hook-Held, chief strategic advancement officer for the museum:
My folded arms are a sign that the 7-year old boy (front) and 6-year old boy (back) are working completely independently. There’s another interesting mathematical vignette embedded in this picture. The boys are working on a tall tower which you can see on the main image on this page, and they were constructing new elements to add to the existing structure. When you do this, with Geometiles you need to ensure that the orientation of two structures match; in the language of engineering and construction, we would say the two structures need to “mate”. You can see that the orientations of the structure the boy in the foreground is working on (indicated by white arrows) matches that of the taller structure off to the left.
When I warned the 7-year old about this, he told me that he already ensured that the orientations match by working with the base of the structure; and that he knows they won’t change by adding on more pieces. This is the kind of thought process I typically associate with college level material or beyond.
If that’s not enough, the boys decided to stabilize the structure as it was getting taller. Their tool: the stools gathered around the area:
Creativity of an entirely different sort was shown by the girls in the room. A 5-year old drew a cat, cut it out, and put it in “its box”— a dodecahedron she built previously.
Another girl wanted to make a hope for her Labubu doll.
She used a ruler to measure its length, so that the house is tall enough. She then proceeded to make a completely furnished house, using a stellated icosahedron that I had made earlier as part of the decor (middle photo) and windows (photo on the right).
The kids weren’t the only ones having fun. This mom of two really got into it!
The space provided by the New Children’s Museum, furnished with curated materials by Mathhappens Foundation, created a perfect environment for all ages to let loose their creativity in a mathematical realm.