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In The Classroom: Math Meets Art

Five students crowd around a table and take out their journals and origami works-in-progress, some simple and some more elaborate. This is Mathematics and Art, a new half course taught by math faculty member Anne Kaufman.

In this first unit of the semester, Ms. Kaufman is using Dr. Robert Lang’s website and TED talk on math and the magic of origami as a jumping-off point. “Figuring out the folding process allows students to do things they couldn’t imagine doing before. And seeing the bones of shapes has been an interesting exercise,” she says.

Students use Dr. Lang’s TreeMaker software as they progress to more sophisticated shapes. Today, each student chooses an animal from images of “taxidermy origami,” 3D images of animal heads folded out of one piece of paper. First, they must sketch out a stick figure of the base before figuring out the crease patterns.

Student Spotlight: Tim Fan ‘21

Tim Fan, a junior who lives in Forbes House, has played the piano since he was 4. He began the traditional way of studying under a teacher, but around fifth grade, he chose to continue learning on his own. Although Tim is focused on the sciences for future academic pursuits, he said that piano will always be an important part of his life. At Milton, he plays with the Chamber Orchestra. Music department chair Adrian Anantawan recorded Tim performing his first original composition titled “Where It Begins,” which he wrote in about two weeks.