Latest

31
Oct
Mathober 2021

Mathober 2021

Prompts are at the bottom of this post and the information for Mathober is here. I used ink and code for this daily practice and really enjoyed seeing everyone’s posts on their blogs and twitter. Let’s plan for next year. Prompts will be generated in September of 2022. Ink: Day 1 – Multiplicity Day
5 min read
24
Sep
a dead cottonwood standing tall and reaching to the sky

Fall 2021 Update

As the school year kicks off and all my classes are on a roll, I find myself posting less. So, here is an update of what’s been going on in my world. Poetry I have continued my practice of posting my haiku practice every 19 days. Click here for latest set of haiku. As usual […]
3 min read
16
Sep
pair of sand pipers on parallelepipeds with an ocean in the background and the matrix fro the volume.

Western Sand Parallelepiper

Another Math bird in the series! This one was inspired by my 17yr old discussing her math homework of deriving the volume for a parallelepiped. So of course It spawned the thought of parallelepiped sand castles.
1 min read
10
Sep
a list of mathober prompts

Get Ready for Mathober!

This year’s Mathober pieces will be posted here. Last year I posted prompts for the first year of Mathober when I wanted to do some daily doodles with no strings attached. The activity was a lot of fun. There were some some great pieces from John Golden and Foldster on Twitter. Prompts this year hav
1 min read
10
Sep
Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Just like solar eclipses, Vaux’s swifts really are a life experience. Watching them funnel into a chimney in a vortex of flitting feathers is just amazing. I had the wonderful experience of watching them funnel into the chimney at dusk in Salem, Oregon (my home). So here is the next math bird in the
1 min read
09
Sep
Diatom Sketch

Diatom Sketch

I pondered diotoms in my spare time today and made this. I hope to play some more as time allows to expand this. Click to change images (randomized). A gallery is included below. Enjoy. A full page view is here. See the Pen diatom1 by Sophia (@fractalkitty) on CodePen.
1 min read
06
Sep
a birdhouse with violet green swallow head packed like a gasket and the math written on the house with parents flying

Packing Violet Green Swallows

I enjoyed watching the swallows this summer. I couldn’t help but imagine that they were packing circles in their little birdhouse portal. Life is full of such precious moments.
1 min read
22
Aug
A pileated woodpecker with morse code and the branches of letters with the waves shown in a forest

Pileated Woodpecker

Another math bird in the series. I am pretty convinced that pileated woodpeckers communicate in their own form of morse code. I wonder what their frequency is when they are excavating?
20
Aug
hexagonal tiles with kolam designs laid out with rotational symmetry

Playing with Kolam Tiles

I attended a wonderful math art workshop that went over the tradition and art form of Kolam. Siddhi Desai and Deepa Bharath had a wonderful presentation and activities to draw on dotted paper to create amazing designs. I look forward to playing with rice flour designs this weekend. One take away tha
2 min read
19
Aug
a western tanager on oranges peeling them to make map projections in the background with drawing tools

Western Tanager

Another math bird in the series. I associate these tanagers with oranges, summer, and warmth. This year I enjoyed seeing them in our woods as I sat on a fallen white oak in the middle of a forest.
1 min read

Want to become a better programmer? Join the Recurse Center!

Sophia

Mathematics educator and creative coder exploring the beauty of mathematical concepts through interactive visualizations and playful learning.

Mathematics

Education

Creative Coding