When my kids were young, we would frequently visit Science and Natural History Museums while visiting other cities. I haven’t done it as much since they are now grown men. This past week, while my husband attended the ASM Microbe conference in Atlanta, what did I do? Visit Museums specifically to look for presentations of mathematical content.
First up was the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. My kids would have loved it because of the dinosaurs. I loved it because they recently opened a math exhibit. There were lots of golden ratios, Fibonacci numbers, symmetry, and Voronoi patterns but the best component was the Mirror Maze. The floor was made of equilateral triangles, the vertical supports were artistic trees, and it was a challenge to find my way from entry to exit. Some of the floor tiles were pressure sensitive and triggered one way mirrors to reveal a math pattern, fact, or question. In truth, I returned to the entrance multiple times before resorting to the “follow the left wall” and finally found the exit.
Next came the Museum of Illusion. Everything here was about mirrors, forced perspective, and instagrammable images. While not billed as being mathematical, symmetry and reflection took center stage. Bonus: Educators get in free!
Growing my math museum mindset, I am convinced that math is everywhere. And families have a blast exploring it. I’m excited for the Seattle Universal Math Museum to develop its own space, we call it SUMM Place, like these.
Math in the Time of Corona 