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Announcements for the Family Math Club.
Imagine several hundred youngsters mathematically leaping and prancing for three hours, encouraged by local educators and Ithaca College students. What you imagine only begins to capture the phenomenal experience of Math Fun Day that will be at Ithaca College this Saturday 4/25 from 10am to 1pm at the same location as the math club.
You are probably wondering "As a math club regular, can I participate in Math Fun Day a special way?" The answer is yes! We will have at least two tables set up that are derived from math camp presentations: one about the Tower of Hanoi Puzzle and one about String Games. I will also have Scratch set up in the Mac computer lab. Please come to the Math Fun day and spend some of your time introducing passers-by to these activities.
I should also note that anyone who shows up to the Farmers Market at 12noon on Sunday 4/26 can join Family Math in the Earth Day parade there.
-Larry
The Family Math Club has been a success beyond our wildest dreams, beyond Googleplex.
However, we anticipate that people's schedules will be erratic during the summer. And they probably ought to go outdoors more. And so we have come to conceive of the club as having a six-month "season" from November to May. The end of our first season will be May 17th, and the club will resume on October 25th 2009. We appreciate any comments you might have about this schedule. And please let us know well the Math Club is going for you, and what might be done to improve it.
Below is a schedule for the next five weekends. Note that on some weekends we have Saturday events.
-Larry
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4/19/2009 Bring a board game! Our game-playing last week was interrupted by building the labyrinth. Here's your chance to pick up where you left off.
4/25/2009 (Saturday) 10:00 - 1:00 Math Fun Day held at Ithaca College
4/26/2009 (Sunday) club meeting canceled; come to the Farmer's Market Earth Day Parade at 12 noon. Wear a large platonic solid on your head.
5/3/2009 Flight simulators with Larry. Get prepared to fly a small plane on May 9th. (Yes you read that correctly: kids aged 8 to 12 can fly in a small plane!)
5/9/2009 (Saturday) meet at the Young Eagles event at the Ithaca Airport; see:
http://www.lightlink.com/ithnet/Orgs/EHFC//youngeagles.html
5/10/2009 (Sunday) club meeting canceled
5/17/2009
Last club meeting for the season! Larry will demonstrate music
synthesis software. We'll create a group composition to play at our
going away party. Bring a musical instrument and a snack.
8/10/2009 to 8/14/2009 Family Math Camp (we plan to post our online registration form next week)
10/25/2009 Family Math Club meetings resume
We've canceled math club on Sunday 4/12. So our schedule for the next few weeks is as follows: 4/12 math club canceled
4/19 game time: bring your favorite board game to play or play one of our games
4/25 (Saturday) Math Fun Day 10 to 1pm (same place as the math club)
4/26 (Sunday) 12noon Earth Day Parade at the Farmer's Market; bring a funny math-related hat
Last Sunday proved warm enough that we were able to build a beautiful labyrinth out of stones on the lawn. Paul has kindly posted photos of the event at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/fishoak/Labyrinth
-Larry
Do you have any interesting projects you are working on? A Scratch game? A science experiment? A work of mathematical art? Join us for an informal show and tell, followed by an informal game time. Bring a board game to play or play one of our games such as Pente, Chess, or Chebache. Also, if weather conditions are good and we have enough people, Dani will show us how to build a labyrith on the lawn as shown at: http://familymath.org/node/102
Note that there will be no Family Math Club meeting on 4/12/2009 due to Easter.
We will be announcing Family Math Camp soon.
The Family Math Club meets Sundays from 2pm to 3:30pm on the third floor of Williams Hall on the Ithaca College Campus (directions below). Kids aged 8 to 13 have reported enjoying the club.
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Other Upcoming Family Math and Related Activities
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Game and Puzzle Night at IC
Thursday April 9th 7-10pm IC Square
mathclub@ithaca.edu
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Math Fun Day
What: Fun math activities
When: Saturday, April 25th 10am to 1pm
Where: Williams Hall, 3rd floor, Ithaca College
Who: You. Contact larry@knowledgetown.com if you are interested in making a booth.
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Earth Day Parade
Sunday April 26 from 12:20 - 1:00
Family Math will be joining the Earth Day parade at the Ithaca Farmers Market. Bring a funny hat and carry a large platonic solid!
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Young Eagles Day
East Hill Flying Club on May 9th
Sometime within the next couple of months aviator David St. George will do a Family Math presentation on the math of flight. In the meantime, kids aged 8 to 17 can actually fly a small plane with an instructor on Young Eagles Day. Are you a reluctant parent? Read about it at:
http://www.ehfc.net/youngeagles.html
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Directions to the Math Club and Math Fun Day
Travel to South Hill on 96B. Turn into the Ithaca College main entrance. Go three fourths around the circle. Take the first right (a sign here says "admissions"). Williams Hall is the second building on your left. Enter either the front or the back and take either the stairs or the elevator to the third floor.
Next Sunday 3/29 we'll take a look at the platonic solids: structures whose sides are either all squares, all triangles or all pentagons. How many platonic solids are there? How many sides do they each have? And why do they often show up in natural forms and as the dice of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game? We'll answer these questions and more by building platonic solids using the Zome(R) construction kit. We'll also bring kits for making a geodesic dome and Tensegritoy(R) structures. Hope you can "make" it!
The Family Math Club meets Sundays from 2pm to 3:30pm on the third floor of Williams Hall on the Ithaca College Campus (directions below). Kids aged 8 to 13 have reported enjoying the club.
Other Upcoming Family Math and Related Activities
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Game and Puzzle Night at IC
Thursday April 9th 7-10pm IC Square
mathclub@ithaca.edu
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Math Fun Day
What: Fun math activities
When: Saturday, April 25th 10am to 1pm
Where: Williams Hall, 3rd floor, Ithaca College
Who: You. Contact larry@knowledgetown.com if you are interested in making a booth.
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Earth Day Parade
Sunday April 26 from 12:20 - 1:00
Family Math will be joining the Earth Day parade at the Ithaca Farmers Market. Bring a funny hat and carry a large platonic solid!
-----
Young Eagles Day
East Hill Flying Club on May 9th
Sometime within the next couple of months aviator David St. George will do a Family Math presentation on the math of flight. In the meantime, kids aged 8 to 17 can actually fly a small plane with an instructor on Young Eagles Day. Are you a reluctant parent? Read about it at:
http://www.ehfc.net/youngeagles.html
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Directions to the Math Club and Math Fun Day
Travel to South Hill on 96B. Turn into the Ithaca College main entrance. Go three fourths around the circle. Take the first right (a sign here says "admissions"). Williams Hall is the second building on your left. Enter either the front or the back and take either the stairs or the elevator to the third floor.
This Sunday Joe Halpern will talk about the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, in which one is presented with a number of disks of varying size which fit onto three dowels. The object is to move all of the disks from the beginning dowel to the ending dowel without ever putting a larger disk on top of a smaller disk. See, for example, http://www.cut-the-knot.org/recurrence/hanoi.shtml
What is the solution? What is the fewest possible number of steps to solve the puzzle? Why should we care? Because this deceptively simple puzzle reveals profound truths about recurrence (things that refer to themselves).
As an added bonus, I plan to bring some craft materials so that everyone can "make-and-take" their very own Tower of Hanoi puzzle.
Also: I expect that the usual group of kids will gather in a corner and swap Scratch secrets. Come join them if you would like to learn their secrets, or bring your own secrets to share.
Also also: countdown to Math Fun Day on Saturday April 25th is 39 days and counting! See:
http://familymath.org/math-fairs
-Larry
Tile Fest Suppose you wanted to tile a wall. You could tile it with triangles. Or you could tile it with squares. But you couldn't tile it with pentagons without leaving big gaps between the tiles. What other regular polygons could you use? What other shapes will tile nicely? And how could you make your wall look like intricately tiled walls of the Alhambra in Spain that were laid out by the Moors in the 14th century?
This Sunday we'll answer these questions and more in a veritable Tile Fest. First we'll use scissors and paper to explore tiling. Then we'll experiment with some of the free tile art software described at
http://tessellations.org
Join us! The Family Math Club meets Sundays from 2pm to 3:30pm on the third floor of Williams Hall on the Ithaca College Campus (directions below). Kids aged 7 to 17 have reported enjoying the club.
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Math Fun Day
What: Fun math activities
When: Saturday, April 25th 10am to 1pm
Where: Williams Hall, 3rd floor, Ithaca College
Who: You. Contact larry@knowledgetown.com if you are interested in making a booth.
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Earth Day Parade
Sunday April 26 from 12:20 - 1:00 Family Math will be joining the Earth Day parade at the Ithaca Farmers Market. Bring a funny hat.
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Directions to the Math Club and Math Fun Day
Travel to South Hill on 96B. Turn into the Ithaca College main entrance. Go three fourths around the circle. Take the first right (a sign here says "admissions"). Williams Hall is the second building on your left. Enter either the front or the back and take either the stairs or the elevator to the third floor.
If you would like to continue investigating the string games we learned this afternoon, I highly recommend that you download the (free) book "String Games" from http://www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/stringgames.pdf
It has all of the string games that Thea demonstrated.
Next Sunday 3/8 Joe Halpern will talk about a game called "Pico, Fermi, Bagel" (which is essentially Mastermind, for those who have played that). After playing the game (which is fun!) we'll talk about some strategic and mathematical thinking underlying the game. Also: Dani will show us more about SeeLogo, the mathematical art software, and we'll have some free computer time.
I wanted to add a brief appeal to this email. Not an appeal for money--Family Math is an all-volunteer organization with no physical or financial assets (and no need for them!). Our assets are each other, and what we can teach each other about math. I am hoping that you will consider hosting a booth at our upcoming Math Fun Day on Saturday April 25th from 10am to 1pm on the third floor of Williams Hall (the same space as our Family Math Club). You will be sharing the floor with Ithaca College students and faculty.
Basically you will need to come up with a math-related topic such as Tiling Shapes or The Math of Flowers or String Games or Origami. We'll give you a table and chairs, and you provide a banner and an activity and enthusiasm for your topic. You can tell the rest of us your booth idea by listing it on this web page:
http://familymath.org/node/197
I think in our culture we get used to being in the audience: at the movies, in front of the TV, and in school. But unlike a school or a movie theatre, Family Math Club is a club. There is the expectation that we will all take the time to discover stuff and then get up in front of the group and share what we learned. And it can be a powerful experience. I'm not the gushy type, but I have to say that the past week was one of the best weeks of my life. My 8-year-old daughter Thea and I spent hours and hours working on our presentation for Family Math Club. It was a real joy to spend that time with her and then to see her give her presentation with confidence and panache. I wish the same joy for you and your family. And wouldn't a booth at the Math Fun Day be a great place to start experiencing that joy? 
We've all seen this: a bright young person takes a simple loop of string and with several lightning-fast movements of their hands creates complex figure. Upon close inspection (and with a bit of imagination) the figure reveals itself to be a cat's cradle, or a winking eye, or a cup and saucer, or a bow and arrow (complete with twanging bow-string). It turns out that string games like these are played in just about every culture all over the world. And it turns out that they are a lot of fun. String games will be the topic of a discussion and workshop at the next (March 1st) Family Math Club meeting held on the Ithaca College campus every Sunday from 2pm to 3:30pm. Larry Clarkberg will give a brief presentation on the mathematics of knots followed by a string game workshop led by Thea Clarkberg. If you don't know how to do string games, come and learn. And if you do know some good string games come and teach us what you know!
Category: math clubs A couple of weeks ago I asked math club members to go around the room and say their favorite number. Many gave integers, some mathematically-minded people said pi or e, and one wise guy said 1729 (the smallest number representable in two ways as a sum of two cubes). I said phi. I think phi should be everyone's favorite number. Like pi, phi is simply a number, equal to approximately 1.618... But phi also happens to be a number that has astonishing mathematical properties, that appears repeatedly in any analysis of natural form, and that also appears in man-made form. Some would say it is the key to beauty itself, and some call it "The Golden Ratio". What makes phi so special? Come to our math club meeting next Sunday to find out.
We also plan to have a Scratch programming workshop on the topic of adding "gravity" to your Scratch projects.
We meet Sundays from 2 to 3:30 on the Ithaca College campus.
-Larry
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