Skip to main content

The Impossible Chess Board

Super excited for this geometry project.  Jobs are assigned, and I have high hopes about the finished product.

Also, since students are interested in LaTeX, I gave the handout with the latex code, which looks like:

% Geometry first project - make a chess board illusion like on the cover of their textbook

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
% Default margins are too wide all the way around. I reset them here
\setlength{\topmargin}{-.5in}
\setlength{\textheight}{9in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{.125in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{6.25in}
\begin{document}
\title{(Im)possible Chess Board}
\author{\em Course: \rm Geometry\\
\em Instructor: \rm Sam Havens \\ \\
Topanga Mountain School}
\maketitle
\noindent \em As a group, we will construct an apparently impossible chess board, modeled after the cover of \underline{Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding}.  The division of labor will (ideally) reflect student interest.
\\ \\
\thispagestyle{empty}
\bf I envision each student taking on one of the following responsibilities:
%\begin{itemize} this was from when the items were numbered.
\rm
\begin{description}
\item[Construction] Constructing the board, including scale drawing.
\item[Measure] Measuring what angle maximizes the illusory effect.  Figuring out how this relates to the design of the board.
\item[Computation] Finding relevant areas, drawing diagrams, and writing up the a summary of the concepts and actions taken.
\item[Research] Researching other optical illusions and providing a document which includes examples, explanations, and diagrams.
\item[Leadership] Provide extra help, when needed, to the other four positions.  Build consensus and morale, direct workflow, and arrange pieces into final presentation (poster?).
\\ \\
\end{description}
%\end{itemize}
\em Fill in the following: \\ \\
\rm Name: \\ \\
Responsibility: \\ \\
Tasks I Need to Complete (write date it will be completed by underneath):


\end{document}

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Marvin Minsky, AI, Math Education

The audio is too good to make this a gif. So, to be clear, this is the blog post for THURSDAY, 1/28. If you are looking for Tuesday's post, go back a post. I wanted to mention to you all that a mathematician and artificial intelligence researched named Marvin Minsky died on Sunday. Among lots of amazing things he did in his life, he wrote about math education for the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. Here is that article ; I'd like you to read it for homework. Speaking of death, check out this amazing visualization ! Finally, for classwork, I would like you to go back to Tuesday's blog post, and comment on other people's homework. Specifically do you like the charts they chose? Are they interesting? Any feedback? Homework IMPORTANT: Pick which 5 (or more) variables that you will track for the Feltron project. Think about how you will keep track of them - pen and and notebook? The Reporter App? A pedometer? Also, that Marvin Minsky article is really...

Bayesian Probability

Read this. Work Come up with > 3 conditional probability questions that are related to that reading and/or Geometric Probability Sign into Google Make a form with those questions, and any needed explanations / diagrams Post a link to the form in the comments of this blog post Other things which need to be done Make sure your Feltron data is entered Start thinking seriously about your Feltron The originals are a good place to start It will be all on the computer - you don't have to make a poster or print it or anything Examples: Esme Bibi's Things to think about HAVING ENOUGH INFORMATION AND CHARTS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT... however, looks matter too Fonts Colors  Just hit space to get another pallet until you find some pairings you like

Start Feltrons

Today your one goal is to work on your Feltrons. You want to make as much progress as possible. Your goal is to send them to me by Friday evening. Sorry I am not there, I am in Arkansas to see my little brother-in-law graduate high school. I will be back tomorrow. If you feel confident just going to work, then do that. By "do work," I mean make the charts and write about them; also calculate the mean, median and mode of every value you can... also the max and min. If you need help, I made a series of videos leading you through the most common things.