Maths and Art
The Maths and Art project was conceived as a
cross curricular project to enable Year 7 students to understand applications of the geometry that they had learned in their Maths classes. The project was lead by Rachel Garfield from Bow Arts at the initiation of the Maths Department. Pupils were asked to make some patterns to go on the windows of the Maths classroom. In the first week, they were shown images by artists who used Islamic patterns and architectural designs as their inspiration. Students were taken through the steps of drawing up small grids on A4 paper from which they were going to make patterns. The grid allowed them to practice and apply their mathematics skills, as did the drawing of patterns using the grid. During the second double lesson, pupils enlarged their drawings on to bigger sheets of paper, first increasing the size of the initial grid from A4 to A1 size. This was their biggest challenge, taking a whole lesson of careful work to complete! Then they transposed the drawings and began painting them as a way to envisage the final painting on perspex. Finally, students transposed the paintings on to the perspex by tracing their designs with felt tip and painting with glass paints. As well as applying the mathematics, they learnt skills of accuracy and control with a paint brush, how to develop an image through a process and, probably above all, making an image in collaboration with others. |