Math Meets Art
My favorite day of the year has arrived. It’s the day I hang up pictures of the artwork my students made by writing equations throughout the hallways around my classroom.
I love seeing how creative students can be and knowing how much math is involved “behind the scenes”.
The how.
Students created this artwork by graphing equations in Desmos Graphing Calculator. The requirement for the project was to include at least four equations from each of the following function families and four circle equations.
Students have been learning how to change each parent function by translating graphs vertically (k), horizontally (h), reflecting graphs over the x-axis (-a), stretching graphs vertically (a>1), and compressing graphs vertically (0<a<1).
To piece together the artwork, students restricted either the domain or range.
Keep adding equations and eventually something wonderful is created.
Why is this special?
This project is one of the few assignments where students have choices. Students choose the art they want to create. Usually, the art represents something they are excited about or identify with.
Students choose the difficulty level of their project. Students may choose to only write the 32 equations required in the rubric, but most choose to go over this number because the picture they want to create requires more equations.
Students choose to explore other functions because they want to be creative. Many students explored how to transform trigonometry functions or the ellipse equation to enhance their work.
Students explore math freely.
Editing equations in Desmos Graphing Calculator allows a non threatening way for students to interact with equations and the graph i.e. their artwork. Students can see the graph of each equation and adjust the equation if the graph is not in the correct location.
There are many resources about using the Desmos Graphing Calculator online. Many students investigated how to make custom colors and animations.
Students are proud of their work.
After I create the art gallery outside my room, I love to watch students admire the art. Many times, I will see a student pointing out their artwork to friends and I can see how proud they are of their work!
Please feel free to share this article with others. I love the idea of more students creating beautiful artwork using and exploring mathematics!
I like how you say, "Must contain the given point (-3,5)." It's like stone soup!
Wonderful! Which grade level students have you given this project to?