Using Art to Teach Maths CPD Webinar: A Review

Charlotte QuantI attended another brilliant CPD event on the theme of ‘Using art to teach maths’. Clarissa Grandi had told us to come prepared with a ruler, compass and paper and I was quite intrigued about what we were going to create.

Clarissa explained to us how art can link to many different areas of mathematics, such as graphs, proportion, symmetry and sequences to name a few. She showed us some pictures of the mathematical art produced by her own students and how it had helped her students to develop skills using equipment such as rulers and compass. She also told us about the benefits of using art to engage and inspire students who enjoy art and the opportunity to be creative. 

After introducing many ways in which art can be effective in teaching mathematics, we came to the part of the webinar where we could have a go and get involved. Clarissa demonstrated how she would introduce her ‘curves of pursuit’ lesson and we all got to have a go at drawing the curves of pursuit, first in a triangle and then in a hexagon. I really enjoyed the drawing and was happy with the results. We also had a bit of a ‘show and tell’ to see everyone’s pictures at the end. They looked amazing!

I found the webinar inspiring and hope to be able to use some of the ideas in my own maths lessons. I am going to be teaching about similar shapes soon and I’m hoping to be able to use the ‘curves of pursuit’ activity in one of my lessons. Clarissa shared with us links to her website and other resources for more ideas about using art in maths. I look forward to bringing this to my classroom in the future. 

By Charlotte Quant

 

You can find Clarissa Grandi on Twitter as @c0mplexnumber.