April’s Citizen Science Series: What’s Citizen Science Anyways?
By Travis West, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, Vinton County Citizen Science is quite simply, engaging local citizens in scientific discoveries and supporting ways in which people like you, me, and our kids can contribute to science through volunteerism. Projects can…
Investigating Energy: Keep it Cool Design Challenge
By Jason Cervenec, Education & Outreach Director, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Have you ever wondered about the science of thermal energy transfer? Especially, why putting on layers in winter keeps you warm, or how a cooler keeps your…
Surfaces of Revolution
A surface of revolution is a hollow 3D shape that is created by rotating the outline of a 2D shape around a line. Watch this video to learn more about them and see some examples. There is a really neat…
Math-Zine
A zine or fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication made by anyone to share content about a topic they are interested in. Basically, a small magazine made by a fanatic of the topic. Fanzines are usually made of folded…
Fractals
Just for fun we took a fractal (dragon curve with 13 folds) and expanded it so that it fills 20 regular sheets of office paper. The result is a fractal puzzle that you can print at home and piece together…
Nonogram
Last summer I discovered this game app called Nonogram and I played it every day! Nonograms are logic puzzles that, when solved, reveal a pixelated image. Turns out they are as old as me 😱 but I only discovered them…
Mandalas and Symmetry
Mandalas are circular, geometric designs holding spiritual symbolism in Hindu and Buddist cultures. They contain symmetrical patterns organized around a central focal point. The symmetry of mandalas is rotational symmetry. When we spin the mandala, less than a…
Mathematical Bubbles
We have all played with a soap solution and made soap bubbles at some point in our lives, but have you ever tried to make bubbles with other shapes? When you blow on an area of soap film, the film…
Experimental Pi
Welcome to International Day of Math We all know that π is the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of any circle. But did you know this special number shows up in unexpected places too? Here we suggest two…
Cutting π
Try Cutting π – An outdoor activity to show you what pi’s really made of! Welcome to International Day of Math Supplies: A few circular objects like a Frisbee, a bucket, a tree stump, or ANY circular objects you…
