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Quiltmaking as a Learning Tool

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Here is information about the quilt project used in Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers in Spring 2002 and will be used again in Spring 2004.

 

The Quilt- A picture of the quilt.

Bibliography - A partially annotated bibliography of information about using quilts in college and non-college mathematics courses.  Includes a very large list of children's literature about quilts and quilting.

General Instructions - The class was broken into pairs and each pair was given a topic to use.  These are the general instructions for the overall assignment.  The instructions for each group and topic are given below.

Group Assignments - The students first had to complete readings and exercises.  The texts referred to in these assignments are listed in the references below.

• Measuring with Pythagoras
• Proving Pythagoras
• Fraction Bars
• Percentages Modeled as Area
• Multiplication Modeled as Area
• Pick's Formula
• Spirolaterals
• Hexominoes and Nets
• Pentominoes
• Strip Symmetry
• Sequences and Sections of the Plane
• Eratosthenes Sieve
• Four-Color Problem
• Triangular Numbers
• Breaking up the Square
• Sum of Odd Integers
• Pascal's Triangle and Modular Arithmetic
• Tangrams

References - The texts used in the assignments above.

Pictures - I set up a sewing and ironing station in my office so the students could easily ask me for help while they worked.  Once the students completed a hand-drawn design, they cut and sewed the pieces together.  Here is a felt-board with a beginning design and finished quilt block.  Another picture of the felt-board with a work in progress.  Here are some pictures of the final designs after the quilt was finished:  Mrs. Pascal, Pinwheel of Percentages, Measuring with Pythagoras, Fraction Wall, and the Four-Color Problem.