The Betsy Ross star

171 views
Skip to first unread message

Pete Benjamin

unread,
Aug 31, 2009, 11:07:17 AM8/31/09
to natur...@googlegroups.com
Maria,

Here is Hanna's story:


This summer I went to the Betsy Ross house. I learned why we have 5
point stars on the flag of the USA. George Washington knew Betsy Ross
had a sewing shop. He asked her to make a flag with 6 point stars.
Betsy knew how to make a 5 point star with one snip of her scissors
by folding the material in a special way first. Because the 5 point
star was easier to make than the 6 point star, that's what she put on
the flag.

See you Wed.

Karen

Maria Droujkova

unread,
Sep 6, 2009, 12:02:20 PM9/6/09
to natur...@googlegroups.com
Since Sue is doing it with her groups as well, here is a more about the activity. We will probably spend at least one more piece of time, making a Natural Math flag out of all stars and star-like structures kids developed.

- The goal is to make a "pointy star": a polygon where convex and concave parts alternate, forming "star rays."
Corollary: the smallest possible number of rays is three (not yet reached by kids,  but getting there with discussions).

- You can use ONE snip of scissors to make your stars (unless you are experimenting - but one snip is the goal here). That's what Betsy Ross did!
Corollary: you got to fold your paper before cutting! You can't just cut out the star shape out of a flat piece of paper.
Corollary: there is a particular "star fold" that gets you there (started by kids during the initial exploration, but help was needed; many happy accidents involve half-stars and other funky creations)
Corollary: the number of rays in your star is half the number of layers in that particular star fold (started by kids, but needs more work; Will is leading this effort)
Corollary: 16 rays is about as many as you can make out of magazine paper without breaking your scissors! (Jessi was leading the effort of making multi-ray stars)

The unexpected: you can make two stars at once by first folding the paper, then making the regular star fold out of this double paper! (discovered by Yasmin, who experimented a whole lot)

The unexpected: you can fold interesting origami-like planes using stars as the basis. I heard of square folding and circle folding, but star folding is a promising new direction, apparently! (investigated by two Noahs)


Cheers,
Maria Droujkova
http://www.naturalmath.com

Make math your own, to make your own math.

Joseph Hinton

unread,
Sep 7, 2009, 9:21:20 PM9/7/09
to natur...@googlegroups.com
Maria,

Thanks for the update on math club.  Yasmin was really pleased to be recognized for making a discovery.  I' ve also enjoyed reading the emails that come across natural math particularly the ones addressing board games and blocks for preschoolers.

Sally
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages