Shanghai Community International School

In their latest unit of inquiry, Grade six mathematics students recently finished their display of Tessellations. This inter-disciplinary project required them to combine their knowledge of mathematics, art, and communications to create unique and fascinating final products.

In math class, students learned about geometric transformations (reflection, translation, and rotation) then applied this to make a template that could be made into a repeating pattern. The artist most famous for this type of work is Maurits Cornelis Escher, a world-renowned graphic artist, who created unique artworks that explored an array of mathematical ideas. 

Students tapped into their inner Escher to create their pieces. Their specific objective for this project went beyond math and art. They were challenged to utilize thought and reason to communicate knowledge of mathematical and design vocabulary as well as decipher whether tessellations are math or pieces of art. Let's see what they have to say. 

Eri created a piece titled Pieces of Survival and explained that “...tessellations are both math and art. I think that because you need knowledge about math such as rotation, translation, reflection, names of shapes, and more to create a tessellation, but they are also about elements of art. Line, shape, color, value, form, and texture...There are patterns in a tessellation, and patterns are used in both math and art. That is why I think both math and art are involved in making a tessellation, and tessellations are mathematical art.”

Above: Pieces of Survival by Eri

Bruno argued his reasoning for tessellations being both math and art. “From my point of view, the tessellation is art and math combined. I think that because the color and the interpretation, as well as the technique of aquarelle, is most likely to be found in art and math supported the process of creating the piece of art. If I look at my tessellation, I find different interpretations of my shapes that make me think that my Dragons in Hurry is a piece of art.”

Above: Dragons in Hurry by Bruno

Student Eleanor, the creator of Pineapple Puzzle, agreed with Bruno and Eri. “...The definition of art is ‘The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination,’ and in the process of creating this art... when cutting my template and creating it, I did not completely focus on just the math part, I wanted my template to look a specific way so I had to use my imagination. But, on the other hand, the definition of math is “make a calculation or come to a conclusion based on the relevant facts and figures,” and I definitely did do that. Such as: when I was figuring out how the parts I cut out rotated, I had to “come to a conclusion” based upon the “relevant facts and figures.” Tessellations are both math and art because, in the process of creating my tessellation, I used many components of both math and art.”

Above: Pineapple Puzzle by Eleanor

There seems to be a consensus that tessellations are both math and pieces of art. Congratulations to all the students who took the time to think through, explain, and create their wonderful designs. 

 

SCIS. Knowledgeable Inquirers.