Maths Craft festivals like this one are helping change attitudes towards mathematics.
"Maths is often overlooked as a subject of beauty and imagination,” says
Dr Jeanette McLeod, of the University of Canterbury (UC).
A mathematician and an educator, Jeanette has a passion for promoting the creative and playful side of mathematics.
As an avid crafter, Jeanette has long known that crafting uses a lot of maths. In 2016, she wondered if this could be an ideal way to bring maths to people in a fun and accessible way.
With the help of fellow UC mathematician and educator Dr Phil Wilson, Maths Craft New Zealand was born. It is the largest mathematics outreach initiative in New Zealand, and involves a small team of mathematicians, tertiary mathematics students, and education experts.
Maths Craft creates and provides free resources to students and teachers helping them to explore mathematical concepts using craft. Examples include crocheting a hyperbolic plane, folding an origami octahedron, and making a Möbius strip.
This way of approaching maths is non-threatening, playful, and accessible, say Jeanette and Phil. It allows students to think like mathematicians by encouraging them to use a curiosity-driven and playful approach. Craft can also be a clever way to communicate mathematical concepts that often seem intangible.
This is an exerpt from an article in the Education Gazette.
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