Computational making and "Mathematics Art" activities in the context of STEAM in Schools Pt. 1

Micro Talk

In this presentation, we micro teach selected Maker Space, Coding, and Computational Thinking activities that middle school students use to make "mathematics art". The maker movement is built on earlier maker interests such as those seen in the Do-it-Yourself, and in Seymour Papert's constructionism theory of learning. Maker activities are being adapted in K-12 and certain scholars are exploring the promise maker culture has on specific disciplines such as school mathematics. Our presentation is going to focus on digital maker activities for making "mathematics art" in the context of school mathematics teaching. We draw from the work of Papert to explore new presentations, new mathematics objects and new learning activities that emerge with use media that are programmable by students. In our work with students in mathematics classrooms we see "mathematics art" as one of the new mathematics activities that students can productively engage in when they are working with computational thinking media such as block-based programming languages and digital tangibles. The presentation explores the terrain of interdisciplinary teaching in the context of STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics) in schools.

Interaction

Interaction with the audience is going to be encouraged by engaging the audience in making "mathematics art" with screen based and digital tangibles tools.

Takeaway

Through the session, together with the participants we will continue conversations on how computational thinking tools are used to do mathematics in the context of designing aesthetically pleasing mathematics artefact such as geometrical constructions.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the session are going to feed into research our research in curriculum studies on integrating Computational Thinking and Maker Space tools in teaching STEAM subjects in schools