Mathematical Modeling at the Intersection of Elementary Mathematics, Art, and Engineering Education
Art education is typically seen solely as an opportunity to explore creative thinking. So, art education is not often been seen as a partner in the more general education of young children. This chapter describes a Draw-a-Monster activity which was revise
- PDF / 443,751 Bytes
- 17 Pages / 441 x 666 pts Page_size
- 37 Downloads / 241 Views
Interdisciplinary Art Education Art and Mathematics Leveraging art education to support the learning of mathematics, and other subjects, is not new (e.g., reading: Bookbinder 1975; science: Kohl and Potter 1993). Take a walk down any elementary hallway and one will find child created tessellations, a la Escher, on display. Certainly, rich mathematical structures, such as tessellations, platonic solids and polyhedra, the golden ratio, and symmetry and patterns, can be explored through a study of physical settings and artworks, as demonstrated in a course entitled Mathematics in Art and Architecture offered at the National University of Singapore (Aslaksen n.d.). The study of and participation in art is seen as something that children enjoy; therefore, it can provide motivation for learning mathematics. Forseth (1980) found in a study of fourth graders that “the use of the art activities seems to help create a more favorable predisposition toward learning mathematics without any impairment to achievement in math” (p. 21). The work of Edens and Potter (2007) suggests that the “art room may be a context for developing students’ spatial understanding, an H.A. Diefes-Dux (B) School of Engineering Education, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. Whittenberg West Elementary, Arlington Independent School District, 2911 Kingswood Dr., Grand Prairie, TX 75052, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. McKee Swift Elementary, Arlington Independent School District, 1101 S. Fielder Rd., Arlington, TX 76013, USA e-mail: [email protected] L.D. English, J.T. Mulligan (eds.), Reconceptualizing Early Mathematics Learning, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6440-8_15, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
309
310
H.A. Diefes-Dux et al.
ability associated with artistic as well as mathematical ability” (p. 294). To take advantage of complementary learning opportunities, Bickley-Green (1995) proposed steps to integrating art and mathematics curricula, starting with the identification of congruent content based on literature in mathematics and art.
Art and Engineering The obvious link between art education and engineering education lies with creative thinking. At the university level, this space was explored through the development of an interdisciplinary project for environmental engineering students and art students related to sustainability and food within the local community (Costantino et al. 2010). Shuster (2008) talks more broadly about the value of liberal and fine arts education for preparing engineers as it “brings us into more direct confrontation with the creative process, with ambiguous concepts and data, and with more diverse avenues of perception” (p. 98). Another link between art education and engineering education is the methods and mediums artists use to create their expressions. In the K-12 setting, this connection was brought to bear at the prototyping stage of design in a grade 6–12 informal curriculum related to animatronic toy design and manufactu
Data Loading...
