Culturally Situated Design Tools:
TEACHING MATH AND COMPUTING THROUGH CULTURE

Many cultural designs are based on mathematical principles. This software will help students learn standards-based math and computing as they simulate the original artifacts, and develop their own creations.

African

African Fractals: fractal geometry

Mangbetu design: transformational geometry

Hexastrip weaving: buckyballs

 African American

Cornrow Curves: transformational geometry

 Youth Subculture

Graffiti Grapher: Cartesian and polar coordinates

BreakDancer: Rotation and sine function

 Native American

Virtual Bead Loom: Cartesian coordinates

Pacific Northwest Basket Weaver:Cartesian coordinates

Navajo Rug Weaver: Cartesian coordinates

Anishinaabe Arcs: angles, coordinates, parabolas

Yupik Star Navigator: counting,  modular math

Yupik Parka Patterns: transformational geometry

SimShoBan:  (work in progress)

Latino

Pre-Columbian Pyramids: symmetry, pre-algebra

Rhythm Wheels: fractions, LCM


For the teacher: Standards-based lesson plans, evaluations, and other teaching materials

For Boys and Girls Club Members

For STARS: handouts and evaluations

These applets run best using Firefox, and screen resolution of 1024 X 768 or higher. You will also need a recent java plug-in, and a recent (Player 6 or 7) flash plug-in:
Click here to get the latest java plug-in          Click here to get the latest flash plug-in 

Click here for photos for use by journalists

This research is funded by:
 
NSF logo
  

Our local institutional partners:

All software linked on this page is copyright 2003 Ron Eglash and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. All rights reserved. A license to use this software for non-commercial, educational purposes only is hereby granted. DISCLAIMER: the software is distributed "as is" without any express or implied warranty, including but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any warranty of non-infringement of any current or pending patent rights. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the software is with the user. Neither Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Ron Eglash, or others involved in its development are liable for any indirect, special, consequential, or incidental damages related to the software, to the maximum extent the law permits.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0634329

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