My first stop when I read this article was to think of the authors' goals and mathematical and artistic backgrounds. I was amazed at their idea of using dance to express the beauty of Euclid's proofs. Although I am involved in the arts to some extent (for example, I have played piano and clarinet and received the highest level of certification in Chinese dance for amateurs), I never thought that the two fields could be closely related.
The second stop occurred when the author introduced land as a new dimension to the project. I truly love this idea. I used to think that mathematics, especially mathematical proof, was difficult to connect to land and place because the discipline is somewhat concept-based. However, by studying the history of mathematics - by seeing Babylonian clay tablets and reading about the ancient Greeks who drew geometry on the sand - I began to rethink and explore the relationship between mathematics and the land.
I believe that showing the video of this dance to secondary school students and guiding them to use their bodies to rephrase Euclid’s propositions will foster their interest in the history of mathematics and look at it from a different perspective. In addition, in my discussions with students during my short practicum, I found that mathematics teachers are usually fixed as a less interesting image to students because they seem to focus only on mathematical content and exams. Holding activities like ‘dancing Euclidean proofs’ can hopefully change students’ misconceptions about math teachers as well.
The only obstacle I can think of is that it may be difficult to determine when to introduce this activity. Although geometry and the history of mathematics become separate subjects in the new BC curriculum, most schools have not yet begun to offer these courses to their students.
No comments:
Post a Comment