Artful Maths - review

The Artful Maths activity book by Clarissa Grandi (published by Tarquin, 2020)

Review by Mark Dawes

If you like your art to be full of maths then this is an ideal collection to use with a class, with a maths club, with your own children, or for fun yourself!

One of the occupational hazards of being a maths teacher is having to try not to react when people tell you “I just can’t do maths”.  I gather that art teachers have similar frustrations when people tell them “I can’t draw”.  On the face of it then, a book called “Artful Maths” might put off rather a lot of people! 

It could have gone this way, where only those who adore both art and maths are going to be interested:

But instead it was like this, where even a non-artist like me was engaged and interested and family members who like neither art nor maths were also intrigued:

The art created here is geometrical, so a ruler and pair of compasses are required for some of the tasks, and then the opportunities for creativity about.

The charm (and genius) of the resource is that it can be used in so many different ways, such as:

·         having an emphasis on the art, on colour, on producing something beautiful

·         as a way to learn how to carry out geometrical constructions and to practise them

·         focusing on the mathematics that underpins the constructions

·         extending the tasks and emphasising deeper mathematical ideas

One of the very exciting things about this is that those who start with one of these rationales then stay for others of them too!

There are four linked resources:

An activity book, which provides clear instructions to follow (with diagrams) and pages to write on.

A teacher book, which includes curriculum links, prior knowledge required, and a suggested way of structuring the tasks with a group.

Two different types of downloadable resources (printables to go with the activity book pages and teaching resources that link to the teacher book), to save writing in the activity book and to enable the tasks to be presented to a class.

Artful Maths consists of six main activities, each of which includes explanation of the art involved and description and questions related to the mathematics behind or within the art.  The first activity is based around curves of pursuit and begins with a square but then moves into other regular shapes and even into 3 dimensions. There are opportunities for creating beautiful diagrams, involving some creativity, and there are explicit geometrical reasoning tasks that can be used alongside the drawings.

The three sets of resources complement each other well, with some questions appearing in the activity book, while others are in the teacher book.  This serves to give enough support in their activity book, without cluttering it with huge numbers of questions, but provides those additional ideas for exploration that the teacher (or parent) could introduce as they wish.

My favourite chapter is the one that shows some very clever and intriguing ways to create mazes and labyrinths: here again there are opportunities for decision-making and creativity within an initial framework. What is particularly exciting is the dual use of ‘creativity’.  I suspect that many children (and adults) will associate creativity with art, whereas these tasks also offer opportunities to be mathematically creative. The extensive extension activities in each chapter offer many ways of doing this.

Because there is a clear focus on drawing and on creating the diagrams, the mathematics that is used can be exposed or can be left hidden, depending on the interest and the mathematical readiness of those who use the activity book.  It is possible to discuss Pythagoras’ theorem or to use trigonometry, or to work with angles or sequences during different tasks, but it is also possible to enjoy and engage with the tasks without doing this, giving a great deal of flexibility.  As a way of introducing and using modular arithmetic, the golden ratio, Fibonacci and constructions this is an interesting and valuable resource.

During lockdown, when most children are not able to be in school, another benefit of Artful Maths is to give a way for children from KS2 to KS4 to practise using a ruler and compasses, and for them to develop their practical skills.

I like the way the mathematics, while optional, seems to be a natural part of each task.  These books and accompanying resources provide the opportunity to do some mathematical thinking while creating something beautiful. What a good combination!

Available here: https://www.tarquingroup.com/artful-maths-activity-book.html

(Disclosure: I was sent a review copy, but had already bought my own!)