Using Math to Bring Drawings to Life
Maria Brinza's math students recently took on a project that brought math and art together.
In order to practice multiplying mixed numbers, Math teacher Maria Brinza organized an art project for her 7th and 8th grade classes. Each group of students had to create a drawing and then use math to scale it up so that they could insert themselves into their artwork. The students began by drawing their artwork and measuring its dimensions in inches; importantly, the number needed to have a fraction.
After measuring their drawing, the students had to determine how much they wanted to scale it up. This scale-up number also needed to be a mixed number (for example: Ms. Brinza made her drawing 8 1/2 times bigger).
By multiplying the mixed numbers of the original drawing and the scale-up number, the students could calculate the new dimensions of their scaled up artwork. The final step was to create a large version of the drawing and take a photo of themselves inside the artwork!
The scaled up drawings are now on display in the stairway of the Middle School.
The Final Results
