Math Photo Challenge 2020

Carl Oliver and Erick Lee are back with the sixth annual Math Photo Challenge! The Math Photo Challenge uses photos to reveal the intersection of mathematics, education and the world we see around us. Public Math has partnered with them to design a postcard for the summer-long event.

Here’s how you can get in on the fun:

  1. Request a Math Photo Challenge postcard here (you can even send one to a friend)!

  2. Beginning on Thursday, June 11th and for 10 weeks after, follow the hashtag #MathPhoto20 on Twitter to see the prompts and use your frame to play along.

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Math at the Movies (in your home)

Watching lots of movies at home these days? As you wait for the family to gather around the TV, why not chat about some math?

We’re bringing Math Anywhere’s movie theater pre-roll straight into your homes! Screen share this presentation to your television as you wait for your movie to start and cue the conversations!

Technical difficulties? Make sure the slideshow is set to play and enjoy the images in full screen.

 
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Print Your Own Postcards

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We’ve gotten some requests for folks who want to know how they can print out their own set of postcards and send them off to people they know (students, coworkers, etc.)

In this post, we’ll share our designs and walk you through how to use FedEx Kinkos’ online print service to create your own set. Just some upfront information before you embark, you can only order 50 postcards for $30, 100 for $45, 250 for $105, or 500 for $145.

If you are not interested in ordering 50 postcards, we’re selling together a set of 16 pre-stamped postcards (4 unique designs, 4 postcards each) to fund more projects like these!

Step 1

Download the front design and back design.

STEP 2

Go to the FedEx Kinko’s online ordering site and select the Upload Your Own option.

STEP 3

Use the Add Image option on the left to upload the postcard designs. Drag the images to the Front and Back of the card. Once you see the images, you’ll need to scale the images down so that it fits nicely within the frame. For example, your back design should look like this.

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STEP 4

It’s pretty self-explanatory from here! Keep following the instructions on the website and you’ll have the option to have the postcards delivered to you.

Postcards Update

Six days ago, we launched Public Math Postcards, a project we designed in light of recent events. Within a week, we’ve shipped all 150 of our FIRST postcard designs. Thank you to everyone who signed up to receive a card and send one to a family member/friend.

You might be thinking, “What if I was the 151st person to sign up for a postcard?” You’re in luck! That means you will be receiving our SECOND postcard design in the mail! Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect.

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Now you might be thinking, “I already received my FIRST postcard, what if I want this SECOND postcard design as well?” The purpose of this project is for us to share mathematical delight during this season, so please don’t be shy. Go ahead and sign up again.

Whether it’s for your first or second postcard, complete this form to receive a Public Math Postcard!

Disclaimer: We will not use these addresses for any purposes other than mailing out these postcards.

Chicago Zine Fest 2019

On May 18, 2019, zinesters from across the country came to Union Plumbers Hall in Chicago’s west loop to browse, trade, and sell zines with one another. What’s a zine? Zines (pronounced ZEEN) are self-published booklets, usually reproduced via photocopier.

CZF was our first foray into zine culture so we were curious as to how we would be received. People were not expecting to see a math-centered zine, but this led to a lot of great conversations - usually starting with “what is this about?” By the end of the day, we had given away 125 zines to CZF attendees. If you couldn’t be there, don’t worry, all of the zines we make are publicly available for you to download, print, modify, and share.

Check out the photos from CZF below! Let us know if you have any questions!

That’s a lot of zinesters.

That’s a lot of zinesters.

The Public Math zine table!

The Public Math zine table!

Creative zinesters left behind patterns for others to explore.

Creative zinesters left behind patterns for others to explore.

NCSM & NCTM Annual Conference

Going to the NCSM and/or NCTM Annual Conference in San Diego this year? We’d love to talk!

NCSM
Tuesday, April 2nd, 10:00 - 11:00AM
Bias toward Action: Designing Collaboration for Impact
The culture within startup companies is often characterized by shared commitment to innovation, healthy risk-taking, and an asset-based approach to team building. Productive collaborative communities in education look much the same. This session will examine a case of like-minded educators overcoming barriers of time, resources, and isolation to form a community poised for action. We will identify essential elements of meaningful collaboration and describe how to cultivate startup values within new and existing educator teams.

NCTM
Wednesday, April 3, 8:00 - 10:30PM
Game Night
We’ll be there playing games alongside you - and we’ll be bringing some Public Math goodies to share!

Public Math iOS Sticker Pack

Have you ever looked at something and thought to yourself, “That would make for a great math photo!”?

An office with cubicles, recycling bins, and a Tetris-like grey, yellow, and green carpeting scheme. The Public Math iOS Sticker Pack is a simple way to add playful math prompts into your photos and text messages.

Here's how to get started!

  1. Install the Public Math iOS Sticker pack from your phone or your iPad (it will open up in the app store).
  2. Launch the Messages app on your phone. iPhone screen with Messages app highlighted
  3. From the Messages app, take a photo or record a video of something that invites math play! Messages app is open; camera icon is highlighted Photo widget is running; shutter button is highlighted
  4. Now that you’ve taken the photo, tap the effects icon on the bottom left of your screen. Photo is showing on the screen; effects button is highlighted
  5. Select the Public Math sticker icon. The Public Math sticker icon is highlighted among the effects
  6. Browse through the stickers and tap the one you’d like to appear. The various sticker options are shown
  7. Use your fingers to place, rotate, and resize the sticker. A sticker is shown on top of the photo, and arrows indicating that it can be moved around
  8. Once you hit “Done” on the top right, the image will save into your Photos library. But it’s more fun if you send it off to your friend or share it on twitter - we promise! The final image with sticker superimposed See the gallery below for some ideas!

Learn more about using stickers with iMessage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch here.

Math At the Laundromat

Chris Nho is a high school math specialist for Chicago Public Schools

This post documents the process of how Math at the Laundromat was developed and implemented. I hope that detailing the process will shed light on how you can start Public Math projects in your community. I cannot emphasize enough how important collaborating was throughout this entire process. No idea, design, etc. was designed in isolation, but always iterated, play tested, and critiqued by an awesome group of collaborators. A special thank you goes to Dan Finkel (mathforlove.com) who graciously shared his designs with us.

Step 1) Find a partner in the community

William is a friend of mine from church who owns a Mr. Bubble, a laundromat in Chicago. I asked if he would be willing to mathematize his laundromat. I showed him photos from my visit to Math on a Stick as well as designs by Math Anywhere (having proof of concepts were essential) to give him a sense of what I was talking about. Without knowing exactly what this was going to look like, he agreed.

Mr. Bubble (2813 W Irving Park Rd) from Google Street View

Mr. Bubble (2813 W Irving Park Rd) from Google Street View

Step 2) Generate more ideas than are useful

I visited Mr. Bubble with William to learn more about his point of view. I asked him a lot of questions to learn more about the laundromat - “Where do your customers spend most of their time? What are they typically doing there? What do these symbols on the machine stand for? What are the numbers on the machines about?” Then, I began mixing in ideas that came into my head. It didn’t matter if I thought the idea was good, bad, feasible, or unrealistic. His reactions allowed me to get a sense of what he liked/disliked, what would be allowed in his space, and how he imagined his customers would interact.

During my visit, I took a lot of photos - more than I felt necessary. I hoped that while looking at them later, something I had not noticed before would provide insight for a design.

Step 3) Marinate

Photos and ideas were shared with other people collaborating on this project. The issue was, every idea seemed pretty great, so it was hard to know what really deserved to be pursued. The only thing I could say was necessary during this step was time. I think stewing on ideas with others eventually led to us feeling like some ideas had lasting power while others we naturally forgot about.

Step 4) Design

Some ideas began to emerge as more interesting. One of those ideas was merging Dan Finkel’s Prime Climb design into the numbering on the machines. I emailed Dan who was super generous in his sharing of his designs (as I find most people in the education community to be) and got to work!

Important mini-step: prototype! Very early on, I showed William a prototype of the sticker and he approved, had he disapproved, it would be back to the drawing board.

It was then a matter of resizing and printing the stickers on Avery 2.5 in circle labels. They’re $9 for 25 sheets with 12 stickers per sheet (you do the math). Collaborators then helped shape the questions that would be next to some (not too many) of the numbers.

Step 5) Install and Document

I met William at the Laundromat with everything printed. He was kind enough to help do the nail-damaging work of peeling and sticking stickers, but we were in a celebratory mood! We had an idea in our heads and were able to make it a reality. After installing, we realized that even more math at Mr. Bubble might feel a little suffocating and distract from the goodness that exists in prime climb, so he suggested using another idea that we have (hint: they’re all about socks) at his other laundromat. I found the next steps conversations was really natural to have because the installation piece had a lot of positive energy.

Dan Finkel has been kind enough to allow us to share all of the designs for this project. You can find and download them here. Please reach out if you have any questions!