We're excited to share a glimpse of the Math in the Making workshop with the broader community, and we're eager to hear your reactions.  Are you a maker? Do you think you use math in the process of making?  Would knowing that you're thinking mathematically change your experience of making?  What opportunities do you see to "bring out the math" in making and tinkering experiences?  Perhaps you have well-developed Math Eyes yourself and enjoy finding math in unexpected places.

The Math in the Making workshop was just the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing process, so please let us know if you'd like to be part of the discussion by sending us your name and email -- or leaving it in a comment on the video.

There are so many intersections of making and math, and these became very apparent at The Math in the Making workshop.  Check out Vi Hart's mathematical machines and musical instruments, as well as "The Never Ending Bloom" video on John Edwards work from Science Friday, which makes a lot of use of the golden angle and golden mean. While I'm skeptical about STEAM in general, when you zero in on math and making art, you can truly "see" math.  
    https://mainerepublicemailalert.com/2017/04/29/meet-the-artist-who-uses-math-to-make-never-ending-blooming-sculptures/

I am wondering if there is any natural "tension" between math and makers. How do you see the balance between the organic freedom in making with the more analytical approach in math? Are participants actively stopping the creation to take measurements or comment on gear ratios and angles or does the general approach attempt to uncover the underlying math incrementally at various stages of construction?

What are you hoping to do with your discoveries? As a math teacher, I would love to see you create a place with maker activities sorted by math topic. I need a resource for inexpensive, hands-on opportunities that help students better conceptually understand math.

I love finding math in unexpected places! How can I help? 

I'm excited to see that makers and math are working together.  Students love making, but often times I don't see students using any computational practices when making, thus no connection to what they are doing, why and how to connect it to computer science or STEM. 

What kind of practices are teachers using when doing these activities to bring out the computational thinking or practices?  What kind of professional development are teachers getting to help bridge open play/learning with specific concepts?

Have you talked with any groups about doing a collaborative work with Makers and Science or Makers and Language Arts or is there a way to tie all of them together in the activities?

Thanks for your comment, Nicole.  You raise important questions about the disciplinary potential of making and tinkering.  How can we help students be aware of the transferable knowledge/skills/dispositions they encounter in the course of making without turning those experiences into something that they no longer love?  While we are exploring these questions (and tensions - see above response to Neil) in the context of math, we hope that the work we do will result in findings and principles that can inform other questions about disciplinary learning in making environments.  This is not to suggest at all that there is not enormous value in the process and inter-personal skills that students acquire and enhance while they are involved in making, but if students' enthusiasm for making can change their views of themselves around math, science or language arts, there could be significant added value.

This project sounds great and I would love to know more about how I can bring math to making. Our Girl Scouts constantly ask for more math-based programs and I'm unsure how to provide for them without making a program event feel like school. Do you have specific outcomes that you're planning to measure with this program? And are you looking for collaborators within the informal learning community? 

I like the exploration of (where) is there math in making?  I am also wondering about the reverse, which may help math teachers and broaden the appeal of the concepts you explored during the workshop (which sounds like having been a marvelous event).

Excited to here more about this!

In a related note....

My school district is planning on bringing back a vocational program to our students. We used to have a fully developed vocational program that was allowed to lapse about 20 years ago. There are so many students that can benefit from hands-on learning that shop classes provide. In the mid 1970s, my brothers were required to take mechanical drawing in junior high. I took wood shop and cooking during my school years. It exposed me to math concepts through drawing, measurements and other tasks. The fun aspect of creating something certainly enhances learning. 

This seems like an exciting project to bridge the intersection of mathematics and "making" which I translate as connecting mathematics to things that are real in the world we live in today. And though it may seem intimidating at first, I think it is important to figure out ways to help the teaching and learning of important mathematical concepts via "making". This could be transformational in how mathematics can be taught and learned. Are there plans to take a step in piloting these ideas in classrooms? 

Hello Andee and all, I am very curious to hear more about this as it evolves, and admit to feeling a bit nostalgic seeing so many smart, creative, fun, and thoughtful people in this workshop!  We did some work with Dick Lesh early on in thinking through the DesignLab. One of the great ideas he helped us with is using shadows as a math modeling exercise, which found its way into a few of our exhibition designs, including the shadow puppet activities in design lab.  I am sure you and your colleagues know about his work conceptualizing math education as a design process. https://www.researchgate.net/file.PostFileLoade...

Thank you for sharing about this project.  I will share your website and encourage some wonderful practitioners I know to sign up for updates and to get involved if they can!