Greg Ondo & Sam Hoey Speak at The SESAME Colloquium
On April 28, 2022, Greg Ondo, associate professor of art, and Sam Hoey, sculpture studio technician, participated in The SESAME Colloquium, hosted by Graduate Group in Science and Mathematics Education at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ondo and Hoey joined Justin Dimmel, assistant professor of mathematics education and instructional technology at the University of Maine, and Eric Pandiscio, associate professor of mathematics education at UMaine, for a presentation titled “Light, shadow, and multiplication through movement: The design of an interactive mathematical sculpture.”
The presentation’s abstract reads:
Physical representations of multiplication are discrete collections of graspable, familiar things, such as blocks, chips, cubes, or rods. They allow for natural, movement-based explorations of multiplication by grouping and tallying. By contrast, pictorial representations involve non-tangible diagrams that can be drawn to any measurable length. They allow for visual explorations of multiplication as continuous scaling. The discrete/continuous divide across physical/pictorial representations of multiplication frames a design problem: How could a physical, manipulable tool realize a continuous model of multiplication?
One such solution to this problem is the SunRule, an analog device that models multiplication through movements that control lengths of light daggers and shadows. We examine the mathematical underpinnings of the SunRule, describe how it has been realized in physical forms, analyze its affordances for modeling multiplication as enacted through movement, and discuss plans for how the SunRule installation will be used for research on mathematical learning.
For more about the colloquium, see https://sesame.berkeley.edu/Colloquium.