Colorful artwork from students adorn the tiles of every hall on campus each year as PreCalculus begins their project on conics, giving students a creative way to reinforce their learned math concepts.
“So this unit is about conic sections, which are the graphs and shapes you get when you splice a cone,” teacher Simone Symmank said. “So for the project, students have to take five conic sections, write the equations for them, and they have to incorporate it into some sort of artwork that they get to choose, so it allows them to tie in the math with some creative art.”
Working with a partner, students can choose and create any design they choose in their project.
“So in the project, we come up with our own image and using our conics principles and equations, we have to make the image as best as we can and draw it on tiles,” junior Catalina Landauro said. “I’ve been looking forward to this project. I like math so I think I’ll really enjoy it because it has drawing, math, creativity, and also partner work—which I’ll enjoy because I have a friend in that class—so honestly I think I’ll like the whole project.”
Students’ chosen design can be one way to leave a physical mark on the school and become a part of their legacy.
”I’m planning on making a Pokemon related art piece,” junior Andrew Gow said. “I think that making art in this way is really cool because we don’t usually do projects that allow us to express ourselves in this way, but I think the biggest challenge will be making it nice enough and presentable enough for something that’s gonna be immortalized in the hallways for everyone to see.”
For students like Landauro, certain tiles hold a little more personal relevance and can serve as inspirational models for students now.
“I love looking up and seeing everybody’s—because the halls are filled with the tiles,” Landauro said. “When my sister was here, when she went to Liberty, she also did the project and she did the NASA logo. And so, I see it almost everyday so I think it’s nice to see everyone’s projects.”
With the tiles able to be seen all over campus, the project is one of the most anticipated ones for some students.
“I think this is something they’re always asking for,” Symmank said. “This year, Precalculus switched from advanced to AP, so that was one of the first questions that students asked me: they wanted to know if they could still do the conic section project. So I think the project as a whole has made its way through the school and it’s something that students look forward to.”
