Math Art Fun

Book excerpt: Math Goggles is a collection of field-tested activities for children that integrate mathematics into the world of the visual arts. Serving as the focal point for each mathematics activity is the work of a famous modern artist"Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Georgie O'Keefe, and many more. After learning brief biographical and anecdotal information about the artist, the reader engages in an exploration of the mathematics embedded in the artwork by creating the featured piece of artwork in the spirit of the artist. Step-by-step instructions accompanied by color images of the artistic masterpieces as well as actual student work aid the reader in visualizing and understanding how to create the art in each activity. As the reader creates each masterpiece, mimicking the great masters, they simultaneously hone their estimation, counting, measurement, and number-sense skills while noticing, creating, and describing shapes and patterns and experimenting with symmetry and probability.