This was an outstanding week for us. A
wonderful mix of creative people
participated, with varying backgrounds, diverse areas of expertise, and
experience
working with different levels of students. But we all feel a passion
for
mathematics education via art. Many of us have had great teaching
experiences
with art-based math education activities that we have developed. After
much
sharing and brainstorming, we decided that the greatest need that we as
a group
could fill is to provide resources for educators at all levels. Other
teachers will
use these ideas in their classes if we write them up in a useful
manner, which
conveys some of our excitement and contains clear procedures to follow.
There are three main projects formed, plus
smaller groups of
participants formed a number of additional partnerships. The main
projects are
edited collections of activities, one aimed at the K-12 level, one
aimed at
college-level liberal arts students, and one aimed at post-calculus
students.
We expect that each collection will be published in the form of a book,
probably with an electronic supplement on a CD or a web site. We
discussed
representative activities for each collection and developed a format
that
contributors can follow when proposing activities to the editors. The
groups of
editors for the three collections will format some initial activities
and with
them as models, announce a call for additional solicitations. Many of
the
workshop participants will be contributors.
I am certain that everyone left feeling
creatively
invigorated, with a sense that our work will have a very positive
long-term
impact on mathematics education.
