Math inspires ceiling tile art
April 10, 2019
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Precalculus students have been working on designing ceiling tiles with groups to learn about conics.
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Students in precalculus classes have been participating in the annual ceiling tile project, which is due on Friday.
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Students had the chance to show their expression and creativity through creating designs on the tiles.
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The project allowed students to collaborate with others to study the math in a creative way.
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Art 1 students had the chance to attempt multiple color scheme painting during a class project. Certain aspects of the project, such as such as complementary, monochromatic, tetrads, and triad color schemes, are foundational to art skills in the eyes of art teacher Jeb Matulich.
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Decorating ceiling tiles to reinforce the conics unit is an annual project for precalculus students with this year’s assignment due Friday.
“Math and art,” precalculus teacher Kortney Smith said. “Students will combine the four conic sections and incorporate them into their picture. We are always looking for ways to take math out of the worksheet and make it more creative and we realized that a lot of our students are very creative, plus it’s a free way to beautify the school.”
Students are graded on having the correct usage of a hyperbola, circle, ellipse, and two parabolas in a unit designed to help illustrate the everyday applications of math .
“From this [project] they are able to see that math is everywhere,” Smith said. “Even in a cartoon character, there is some math, and they get a chance to express their creativity in another way.”
With the school year winding down, the project provides a break from the daily grind.
“I think it’s a good way for us to creatively express ourselves,” junior Kavi Saravanan said. “We usually don’t associate math with doing creative things plus it’s a nice break from all the stress. Math is, in general, a very conceptual concept so it’s a lot easier when doing it with art.”
Once the paint hits the ceiling tile, it is all about expression.
“It’s so inspirational,” sophomore Gabi Nguyen said. “I love art so including it makes me so happy and it inspires creativity.”
