Talk February 15, 2020
Abstract: This talk will describe the capstone class "Mathematics through 3D printing" taught Fall 2019 at George Mason University. The students are mathematics majors, so they have had a lot of in depth mathematical content. By getting them to design and create a weekly print, as well as give a written or oral explanation of their print, the class allows them to see the content in a new way, incorporating both exposition and artistic expression into the experience. The talk will not require any mathematical background, and I will provide examples and will distribute adaptable code in both OpenSCAD and Mathematica. If students receive more time and more step by step instructions, many of these codes could be successfully used in classrooms starting even in middle school.
The take home message of the talk: The talk does not require any prior knowledge. I will describe the experience of incorporating STEAM into the college math classroom by combining 3D printing and math, and I will specify how these ideas could be incorporated into a variety of classrooms at all levels.
Click to download the entire OpenSCAD Collection which are tested as accesible for middle school and up
This collection contains:
- Six self-paced tutorials for OpenSCAD:
- Assignment in OpenSCAD. With some instruction, middle school and up: ifsnew.scad
Click to dowload the entire Mathematica collection which are best with upper level high school and up:
- Mathematica tutorials:
- Mathematica code to create Sugihara cylinders: ambiguous.nb