MATH + ART =
ARTSBRIDGE!
Many Thanks
Many people supported this project. I wish to thank four
women who worked closely with me. Laurie Baefsky, USU
ArtsBridge Director, for her guidance and patience. Dee
Jukes-Cooper, 7th grade Math teacher and long-time friend,
for her willingness to experiment with me. It took much of
her class time, and I appreciate her faith in me to fill that
time with meaningful learning. Mary Bedingfieldsmith, USU
Secondary Education Department, who has also been a
long-time teaching partner and friend. Thanks for taking
time out of your busy schedule to mentor me and come
create with us. Nadra Haffar, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, for her expertise and enthusiasm about Art in
general. She continues to be a great resource to me.
I express gratitude for the financial support of the Marie
Eccles Caine Foundation. Their assistance on this project
made it possible for my students to experience art projects
with equipment and supplies they would not have had
otherwise. They have come to my aid on many projects in
the past, and I am grateful for their support. I simply could
not do what I do without them.
The Cache Education Foundation. Their matching funds
program helped me maximize donations and create a great
program for the ArtsBridge project and for my Art students
as well. I am grateful for their dedication to student
learning. The Daniel Robert Lynch Art Program, a part of
the CEF, has been immensely helpful. They have also
made it possible to collaborate with Art teachers throughout
the valley.
Thanks go to Maceys Food and Drug. They donated all the
“disposables” needed for creating in a classroom that has
no storage for supplies or access to water. Their donation
is greatly appreciated!
Willow Valley Middle School: Lynn Archibald-Principal,
Jeanette Christensen-Vice Principal, Chris HardyCounselor, and Frank Ashcroft-Custodian, for supporting
me in this project. Their sincere willingness to support and
help in any way is inspiring. They make work fun!
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
Dear Hobo Lobos,
Thank you for helping me with my math
skills and allowing me to teach you some art
skills to help you in your math. You are a great
group of very smart students! As Trisdan would
say, “You’re all smartacles”!
This book is a reminder of the projects
and activities we did together. I had such a
good time with you. Thank you for making it a
great experience.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Erekson
We colored our Ice Cream Sundae, and then cut it out and
glued it to a colored piece of paper. Then we got creative
with the background. Mrs. Jukes-Cooper could tell if we
understood how to find the coordinates by looking at our
pictures. Almost everyone had a good-looking Sundae.
THE QUADRANT PLANE
Mrs. Jukes-Cooper provided us with a great visual activity
to use our skills with the Quadrant Plane.
HOBO LOBOS
ARTSBRIDGE CLASS
We used the coordinates given to create the Ice Cream
Sundae on the Quadrant Plane. It was a lot of fun.
This was about the time Mrs. Erekson was running out of
time with our ArtsBridge project, so we didn’t get to do
another art project for the Quadrant Plane. But she did
show us and explain how the Quadrant Plane can be used
in Tessellation Art. She says Tessellations are one of her
favorite types of art. We looked at some Tessellation
artwork of Mrs. Erekson’s and of some of her favorite
artist’s, M.C. Escher’s Tessellations. She says he inspires
her.
“Multiplication by
Tessellation”
by Mrs. Erekson
From left to right and top to bottom: Mrs. JukesCooper, Matt, Luis, Eduardo, Diego, Austin,
Zach, Parker, Mrs. Erekson, Rhett, Jade, Taya,
Haley, Taleasha, Trisdan, Clay, Hailee, and
Elena.
We created textured paint pages for cutting out shapes and
creating collage artwork for our Absolute Value project.
THE METRIC SYSTEM
Mrs. Jukes-Cooper taught us how to convert within the metric
system by either multiplying or dividing in patterns of 10. Mrs.
Erekson showed us visually how to see the growth by 10’s on
a meter stick.
I = millimeter
I= centimeter
= decimeter
= meter
Taya is creating her paint pages. See how she used them in
her picture!
We used the metric system to help us figure out how much
wire we would need to create a wire sculpture PowerTree.
Once we figured out how many centimeters of wire each of us
would need for our tree, we converted the centimeters into
meters using the math skills Mrs. Jukes-Cooper taught us and
the songs Mrs. Erekson taught us. We used #5 cat telephone
wire to make our PowerTrees. One group of students needed
as much as 256 wires for their sculpture. At 50 cm per wire,
that meant using 12,800 cm of wire! We converted it to 128
meters, and that sounded a little more reasonable. But we still
had to cut all that wire and then sculpt the tree correctly.
Everyone was busy painting
and using creative texture tools
to make designs in the paint.
Some used string, others used
crinkled up paper. And some
scratched into the paint with
plastic forks. They all turned
out great!
ABSOLUTE VALUE
After we finished our Color Wheels, we began creating artwork that mimicked the artwork of Eric Carle.
Mrs. Jukes-Cooper taught us the concept of absolute
value, and Mrs. Erekson introduced us to an optical
illusion that shows how absolute value works. In the
book, “Hello, Red Fox”, the fox is really green. But
since red is the opposite of green, if you stare at the
green fox long enough, then look at a blank white
paper, the fox will appear as a red fox. Mrs. Erekson
explained that just like Mrs. Jukes-Cooper had said,
even though it is the negative, it still a fox. It has the
same value just like the absolute value of a negative
number has the same value as its opposite positive.
Haley showing Mrs. Jukes-Cooper her calculations for how much wire
was needed for her PowerTree, then showing how to bundle the wires
to begin creating branches.
Songs to help us remember how to convert within the Metric System:
MILLIMETER TO KILOMETER
Millimeter, centimeter, decimeter, then comes one-full-meter;
Dekameter, hectometer, but kil-om-et-er is BIG-GEST!
MULTIPLY BY 10!
(To the tune of BINGO Was His Name-O)
How many millimeters are there in one centimeter?
CHORUS:
Multiply by 10
Multiply by 10
Multiply by 10
And you will get the answer!
Eric Carle’s purple bird appears yellow on the
opposite white page.
How many centimeters are there in one decimeter?
CHORUS
How many decimeters are there in one full meter?
CHORUS
How many meters does it take to make one dekameter?
CHORUS
How many dekameters are there in one hectometer?
CHORUS
How many hectometers are there in one big kilometer?
CHORUS
EXPONENTS
This is the math concept and art project we spent the
most time on. That’s because we were having a hard
time understanding how exponents work.
Mrs. Jukes-Cooper spent a lot of time teaching about
exponents, and Mrs. Erekson spent a lot of time helping
us make PowerTrees. A PowerTree is a wire tree
sculpture that shows exponents in a visual way that is
very similar to the way trees really grow.
First, we painted a PowerTree 2-dimensionally.
Mrs. Erekson showed us photograph positives and
negatives, then she read us the story, “Hello, Red Fox”,
written and illustrated by Eric Carle. She showed us
Goethe’s Color Wheel and how colors also have
opposites, just like black and white, and just like
numbers as integers in math.
Austin’s 53 PowerTree.
Haley’s 63 PowerTree.
Then we created it 3-dimensionally.
A 27 Wire sculpture PowerTree by Jade, Hailee, and
Elena.
Elena’s Color Wheel.
Eduardo’s Color Wheel