Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Week 9: Mathematics & traditional and contemporary practices of making and doing

Reading Reflection 

Kallis, S. (2014). Building for Change from the Ground Up. In Common threads: Weaving community through collaborative eco-art. essay, New Society Publishers.

The excerpt of this book begins with a brief introduction of what community garden initiatives in Vancouver and asks the questions" "Beyond food, what if we began to make some of the things that we need for ourselves again as a cultural and social norm?" (p. 19.) Newer towns are being built around the idea of humans as consumers but could also be geared towards supporting production and consumption. Kallis suggests using our power as purchasers to ask questions about what we are buying and dictate the type of consumerism we want. Currently, our needs for food, clothing and shelter are being met by others who are doing the work, likely in factories. Through striving to meet our own needs we can learn these skills that have been lost. 

There is a quote box on the last page of this excerpt from a community participant that really stood out to me (see below). I have seen students on their brand new iPhones, online shop in the middle of class and use their parents credit card to purchase whatever they want. This was crazy to me as I would never have been allowed to do that when I was growing up. When children and youth have these abilities to buy whatever they want when they want it, it definitely becomes an issue and an ongoing cycle of purchasing the newest trends even when the item they previously bought is fully functional. Even for me now as an adult I need to think about purchasing something for quite a while before I do, unless it is something I need. 

Quote seen in Kallis (2014, p. 22)


Thinking about making our own food or clothing, I was thinking about how I know school gardens are in some of the schools around me but since I was in high school they have taken out the textiles program. I grew up sewing with my mom and loved taking textiles in high school, in grade 8 and 9 we had a combined 'home -economics' course with both textiles and foods and in senior classes we could take each course fully. In these classes we learned a lot of life skills and learned how to make our own clothing - I still have some of the things I made. I think this may just be due to lack of teachers for a textiles course where I live but I wonder how else we can teach students to make things of their own. 

Questions 
  • How can we teach students to ask the questions about where their items are coming from when they have the power to purchase whatever they want at the click of a button? 
  • What are some other ways aside from school gardens that we can teach and encourage students to relearn these lost skills and make things for personal use? 
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Activity: Multi strand braid 

It is very snowy here today so I couldn't forage for any items, I decided to try the multi strand braid. I know how to braid my hair with 3 strands but have never tried more than that. 

I started with a 7 strand braid as seen the video. This was challenging for me, I used different colours to see all the seven strands but struggled to hold all strands in my hands and found that if I let them go the braid would be quite loose. I think this would have been easier if I had used a thicker string like macrame yarn as seen in the video. 

setting up the braid 

Beginnings of a seven strand braid 

seven strand braid


I then tried to make a four strand braid, this one was easier to keep ahold of and I was able to feel the weaving and patterns in this. I liked how naturally I was able to complete this braid as it required less concentration and frustration. 

four strand braid 



Reflection

Knowing that this 'activity' has been done for tens of thousands of years is empowering, doing the craft made me "really appreciate how lovely and skilled these technologies are" (Jerofsky, 2024). I think it is fun that we are able to continue on these crafting techniques and teach younger generations about them. Learning these skills allowed me to see the skill and concentration that many generations have gone through to learn. These crafts must have true integrity to be able to withstand and be passed on for so many years, I wonder how long they will continue to be learned and passed on. 

As I was trying the braiding I was able to see the patterns and counting involved in the movements. For the four stranded braid there was a clear over under, under over pattern. With the seven strand braid, while this one was less natural for me, I could count the under one over two pattern on each side. 

I currently work in classrooms of all ages in four different schools so don't have my own group of students. I have seen some quite complex mathematical ideas associated with braiding  (like this or this). I was thinking about how braiding could be used in an elementary classroom aside from looking at patterns and I thought about skip counting. Students could braid and count each time they put the left strand over. 

Connecting to a larger project idea for upper elementary, students could braid old fabrics together and make rugs or sleeping mats. These could connect to a social justice project as well and students could give away the sleeping pads to those experiencing homelessness. These could also be made into dog beds for animal shelters or students could even make braided sit spots for their classrooms outside explorations. In each of these activities the students would need to calculate how much materials they would need and how large they need their mat or rug to be. 

While I didn't try the upcycled activity this week, it reminded me of when I was in grade 5/6 and we participated in a project where we were to take recycled or items that couldn't be used again and made them into something new. Like in the introduction we were tasked "to make useful and delightful things from what would otherwise have been considered waste." This is something that I still remember today and I still have the project that I made, it is a great way to connect to Earth day and allow students to see the ways that they can use objects that are often considered garbage or useless. 

Monday, March 4, 2024

Final Project Draft: Weaving in Mathematics

 Please click the link here or image to view final project draft. Completed with Kaitlin Burns. 



Friday, March 1, 2024

Week 8: Math and Fibre Arts, fashion and culinary arts

 Reading Response 

Sarah-Marie Belcastro describes how she has converted mathematical shapes into knitted objects. She has been knitting since a child but as adult began knitting mathematical objects, starting with a Klein bottle. The article outlines her process to creating the Klein bottle including materials chosen and shortcomings. At the end of the article she explains that she is still working on designs for the Klein bottle and continues to be challenged with this mathematical knitting. The article showcases photos of Belcastro's knitting projects as well as where her inspiration came from. She explains that these objects are good teaching aids as they can be physically manipulated. She also explains that knitting connects to geometry as there are stitches, increases and decreases, rows and columns. The article discusses other mathematical objects that Belcastro has knitted and the process/struggled involved with them. She explains the design process for knitting mathematical objects: choose an object, articulate mathematical goals, consider objects fine structure, produce a pattern. 

In explaining the process of creating Klein bottles, Belcastro explains that her shortcomings were aesthetic or mathematical. The knitting was ugly due to the materials and tools she had chosen to use and there was difficulty in creating the mathematical shapes. As someone who knits and crochets often I related to the feeling that final products did not turn out because they don't look the way I wanted them to. I also have had issues with my knitting because I dropped a stitch early on and didn't realize it or somehow I added a stitch that messed up the line. While I haven't tried to knit mathematical object necessarily, I have experienced issues in my knitting due mathematical errors (counting stitches). 

 As I have knitted since I was a child I have always wanted to try and put knitting into my classroom. In EDCP 550 I completed my final project on knitting blankets and sleeping pads for the homeless out of old clothing. I am still thinking of more ways that knitting can be brought into the classroom. After last week reading about the comic being written on a Mobius band, I am thinking about how students could knit or sew a mobius band and then add a story to it so that the reader can physically move the story along as they read. I also think just making the Mobius band would be a positive way for students to be able to understand it better (although more of a time commitment than making one out of paper). 

I love the idea of knitting mathematical objects and am inspired to try it, I just am unsure what I would do with the object once I was finished it however I will continue to explore the math involved in knitting. 

Questions 

  • Do you knit, crochet or something similar? Have you tried to use this with students before? 
  • If you don't knit yourself, how would you go about incorporating knitting into a math class? 
  • How can we encourage everyone to try these crafts especially when they see the binary between what crafts for 'girls' are versus activities for 'boys'? 

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Activity

Connecting to the introduction for this week, my mother taught me to knit when I was young. I engaged in a lot of different craft skills and even had a little weaving set where I made coasters. I have continued to develop some of these crafts as I am older. Since starting this program I have been thinking more consciously about how these crafts connect to mathematics. These crafts continue to hold this binary between what women can do and what men can do and I have seen this in classrooms even with young boys who don't want to knit or make bracelets because it is a girls activity. 

Kaitlin and I are doing weaving for our final project for this class. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out a weaving activity on my own! I also really liked that the document had a variety of applications for different grade levels. 

I started by making my cardboard loom and adding the warp threads. This part was simple and quick. 

Cardboard loom and warp threads

Next, I added my first and second colours. I started with two colours to copy the design that was on the document however it was a challenge to keep track of all the yarn. 


First few rows alternating colours 


I then decided to try with only one yarn as I was using a multi-colour yarn anyways. This was much easier to work with and keep track of and still looked pretty okay with the many colours of the yarn. 

Halfway through using only one yarn now 

My warp threads were getting squished 

I realized that my design was getting quite tight and in the future I would need to try and be a little looser with my tension. 

I like the activity of trying to weave this way, it ended up being a little more challenging that I thought it would be however I do know how I could adapt the weaving in a few different ways to make it easier for those that may struggle. I enjoyed the chance to try out some weaving as this isn't something I have really done since I was a child.