Celebrating the Beauty of Mathematics

During the month of May, the California Mathematics Council (CMC) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) will be celebrating the Beauty of Mathematics through virtual activities for each day of the week. These activities are open to all mathematics educators.

Where do you see the beauty of mathematics? What makes mathematics beautiful?

Beauty of Mathematics Activities

Throughout May, we will be sharing tasks, games, videos, and resources about the beauty of mathematics on Twitter and Facebook. At the end of the month, we will link all of the tasks and resources shared here.

Weekly Activities

• Wonder Sunday - Engage in the conversation by sharing your thoughts about our weekly question.
• Mathematician Monday - Learn about the beauty of diverse mathematicians and their work. Thank you to Dr. Kristopher J. Childs, @DrKChilds, for sharing your work! 
• Task Tuesday - Explore the beauty of mathematics through tasks, puzzles, and games.
• Modeling with Mathematics Wednesday - Investigate tasks that support modeling with mathematics across the grade levels.
• Hit Play Thursday - Need a little inspiration? Each Thursday we will share videos that we hope inspire you and your work.
• Follow Friday - Join us as we connect you with others that are passionate about the beauty of mathematics.
• Sharing Saturday - Explore resources to support your work and learning around the beauty of mathematics. 

Beauty of Mathematics Contest

Join the conversation and enter CMC’s Beauty of Mathematics Contest for the chance to win a free registration to a CMC Conference or a free CMC Membership. To enter, tweet or post your response to the question: Where do you see the beauty of mathematics? Share what you think is beautiful about mathematics. Be creative and have fun!

Contest Rules:

1. Tag: @CAMathCouncil and @NCTM
2. Include: #beautyofmaths #cmcmath #NCTM
3. Each tweet/post counts as 1 entry. Multiple entries welcome.
4. Contest runs from May 1, 2020 (8:00 am PST) to May 31, 2020 (12:00 pm PST).
5. Winners will be randomly selected from tweets/posts that meet these guidelines.

We hope that you join us in celebrating the Beauty of Mathematics and NCTM’s centennial. If you have ideas or a resource, video, or task that you would like for us to consider highlighting, please email: [email protected]. 

Mathematical Beauty Scavenger Hunt, Sponsored by Sunil Singh @Mathgarden

Grab your coffee and get ready to explore the whole internet trying to find answers to various historically important math facts and ideas! On Saturday, May 30th at 9 am PDT, a link to the Scavenger Hunt questions will be available. The first 25 people to get all the answers correct will win a copy of "Math Recess: Playful Learning in an Age of Disruption" courtesy of Amplify. 

Mathematical Beauty Contest, Sponsored by Daniel Pearcy @DanielPearcy

For anyone interesting in engaging with mathematical beauty at a deep level, check out the twitter account of @DanielPearcy, the author of “Mathematical Beauty”. He is posting at least one tweet a day with a challenge, problem or provocation, with the goal of sending a copy of his new book at the end of the month to one of the people who engage meaningfully with the tweets sent out.