Planet of the Exponents!

An exciting new art/math STEAM project was just created at Paterson School 7!
This lesson is an extension of a project found at:
http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/82808892

It required that students create a handbook or pamphlet. However at School 7 Art Professor in Residence/PIR Myra Winter and Eighth Grade Math Teacher Rosa Kopic collaborated to add extra elements.

The teachers presented the following problem and task to the students:  
"Imagine a strange planet where the rules that everyone has to follow are the rules of mathematical exponents.  But there is a problem:  "space tourists" visiting the planet do not know the rules of the exponents and are not obeying them, upsetting the citizens."

Each student had to act as the "Director of 
Tourism", preparing a kit to be distributed 
to all visitors to the planet, explaining the 
math. Each box had to be created using 
geometric folding techniques that 
resulted in a rectangular prism.  



Ms. Kopic demonstrated the folding.....

..............and the students followed her instructions.

 



















The kit contained a box with a series of enclosures that explained the rules and the consequences for not following them.

The students then decorated the boxes in a way that would attract tourists and encourage them to follow the rules.