The Challenge: Can you find the 4, 5 and 6 crossing knots?
Materials needed: Patience, creativity, paper, pencil, maybe some strips of t shirts and a safety pin?
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: Combinatorics & permutations, counting, graph theory, knot theory, topology, vertices/intersections
The Challenge:
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil, colors
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: angles, counting, geometry, lines, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: Fold an origami cube with windows. Possibly make multiple. (This could be a great collaborative activity for a class!)
Materials needed: 12 pieces of paper, cut to rectangles with a 1:2 ratio.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: angles, geometry, origami, sequences, symmetry, vertices/intersections
(You may have picked up on this, but I tend to do the more involved things on the weekends when I have a bit more time. This one was HONESTLY pretty reasonable until the last step, which took me about 5 finicky minutes to get together. YOU CAN DO THIS. And it is SO SATISFYING when it’s finally together.)
The Challenge: Fold yourself an origami firework.
Materials Needed: 12 congruent paper squares, patience.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: angles, orgiami, symmetry, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: With a compass or with tech like Geogebra or Desmos Geometry, to recreate the Lotfallah Mosque Dome design.
Materials Needed: compass, straight edge, colors. You could also use graphing software for this.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: angles, circles, geometric construction, geometry, Islamic geometry, lines, polygons, proportions/ratios, symmetry, vertices/intersections
The Challenge Game: This one really isn’t a challenge – it’s a sweet game, you should play with whomever you’re sequestered at home with. Or by yourself. I clearly played myself.
Materials Needed: writing utensil, writing surface
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: graph theory, proportions/ratios, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: Fold you own octahedron from 6 square pieces of paper.
Materials Needed: 6 square pieces of paper.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: angles, geometric construction, geometry, origami, symmetry, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: Create your very own ellipse using just a compass or technology (I did one below using the free desmos.com/geometry)
Materials Needed: Compass, increasingly large circles to trace or graphing technology.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: Circles, geometric construction, geometry, symmetry, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: Suggested by Clarissa Grandi, to cut out and construct this flowered dodecahedron. Mine below followed by links to instructions.
Materials Needed: A set of these papers printed and cut from cardstock. (there are other sized pieces available at the links below.
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: geometric construction, geometry, polygons, polyhedra, symmetry, vertices/intersections
The Challenge: Play with chirality. Chirality refers to the rotation of a specific object. The knots above have opposite chirality.
Materials Needed: This is wide open. Spinning video? Knots? Twisted candy? Be creative!
Math concepts you could explore with this challenge: knot theory, pespective, topology, vertices/intersections
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