RELEASE #144
14 APRIL 1997
for immediate release
CONTACT:
MARCY DUBROFF
(717) 291-3837
E-MAIL: [email protected]
Web: Http://www.fandm.edu
Finding Beauty in Mathematics
LANCASTER, Pa. -- Bertrand Russell once said that "mathematics rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty."
Many first-year students, in the throes of Calculus 101, might take exception to Russell's description. But there is another, more beautiful side to math...just ask Franklin & Marshall College assistant professor Annalisa Crannell.
Crannell teaches Mathematics, Art and Aesthetics, a first-year seminar expressly designed to show students the mathematical nature of art and the artistic nature of mathematics.
"This is not a standard course," reads the first page of Crannell's seven-page syllabus. In fact, Crannell's math and art course, unique to F&M, is not taught anywhere else in the country.
Crannell has designed her course to introduce students to skills that will help them in future college courses and in their life beyond college. "Math and Art emphasizes the ability to write and communicate well -- to organize your thoughts, to provide appropriate supporting arguments and present work clearly. In addition, students learn to do research in printed and visual material, in libraries, in museums, and on the computer. And, they learn a lot about some interesting mathematics and art along the way," she said.
Crannell begins her course with an examination of perspective. Students' first assignment is to draw their hallway. "There is a lot of mathematics that goes into drawing something in proper perspective," Crannell explained. "You have to understand your subject and also where the viewer stands in relationship to the picture."
The class then moves on to an examination of patterns, studying quilts in the Rothman Gallery, Islamic tiles and several M.C. Escher drawings. "Patterns are ubiquitous throughout academia," Crannell explained. "In art and mathematics, those patterns are very distinct, but there are also patterns and symmetry in other areas, for instance, structure in storylines."
The first-year students then go on to study platonic solids. Last semester, the class even took a field trip to a dance class to "dance the platonic solid." Crannell said with a smile.
"There's a certain type of dance notation, called Laban, that uses platonic solids to describe the position and the motion of a dancer. We all had a ball....two of the men in the class even wore leotards!"
The course ends with a study of fractals, everybody's favorite, according to Crannell. "We do fractal art, create our own fractals, and look at fractals in nature (anything that's not made by human beings that has rough and peculiar edges.)"
If all this sounds untraditional, well, it is, said Crannell. "The thing that I like about this class is that it allows us to be very free. Last semester, we had classes outside the confines of Stager Hall, going to the F&M libraries, the Pennsylvania School of Art & Design, the Rothman Gallery, Fred and Mary's Coffeehouse, my house (where we carved pumpkins) and the Common Ground snack bar. It makes me reach out as a teacher and expand the way I taught...most of these places don't have blackboards."
In spite of, or perhaps because of all this traveling, the students learn quite a bit, Crannell said. "One former student took her parents to an art gallery in Lancaster during Family Weekend. When she began explaining, in detail, the perspective in the paintings to them, she realized how much she had already learned."
Throughout the semester, Crannell has her students turn in weekly writing assignments, prepare library presentations for each other, work on an outline for an unwritten 15-page paper and assemble a final portfolio that included works that explained their growth and current abilities in the course.
"This end-of-semester portfolio is their chance, and their obligation, to demonstrate what they have learned over the course of the semester," Crannel said. "And I have to say that these final portfolios are more beautiful that anything I could ever have put together for this class on my own."
###
RSS