HAFTR first-graders explore math at the museum

First-graders from the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) took part in the interactive activities at MoMath, the National Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan last month. The students were enthralled by the idea that math can be found everywhere in the museum.

They saw that the bathroom sinks were in the shape of hexagons, and that the floor tiles were comprised of triangles and rectangles. They were shown the door handles at the entrance that are in the shape of the Greek letter π (pi), a mathematical concept they could look forward to learning about in the future.

Among the popular exhibits were the Hyper Hyperboloid, Human Tree, and Robot Swarm. The favorite exhibit was the Square-Wheeled Trike, where students rode a tricycle with square wheels.

Students also attended a workshop led by a museum educator and discovered that tessellations, or infinite tiling patterns can be found everywhere. In small groups they constructed tessellations, using tiles of various shapes. First-grader, Hudi Kanarfogel said that she liked the museum because, “you can touch things, not like in other museums.”