I think that having students quilt a bit before they work the math could only help their understanding of the area problem. As always, though, we balance everything against time and cost and I don’t think the value added by classroom quilting justifies the time or dollar cost.

That line is different for everyone, though, and if bringing a personal hobby into the classroom makes you a little more satisfied in your job or the relationship between your students that much deeper, that has to factor into your calculations also.

SERIOUSLY, don’t you think that point about the kids doing the activity as a pre-req to doing math projects related to it is kinda key?

I suppose there are some activities, like pro sports, where you could be largely an observer. My dh is convinced he can’t do math, but spent most of his life following baseball stats, which involves a fair amount of math and analysis (really, what is a useful stat to follow in baseball, you could write a dissertation on it). I think this argues against stupid math problem setups like, how much of x do you need to make y when the kid doesn’t give a darn about making y and working with x.

So there is still agreement from Sarah that to make the knitting math connection, you have to have the kids doing knitting, which only seems to be taught in Europe, or Waldorf schools.

This company has a student t-shirt design contest called Threadless 101—maybe you could entice some of your kids.

My precalculus teacher’s emergency lesson plan was to write a paper about how you use math in daily life. I wrote about knitting. Probably along the lines of altering patterns as you suggest in #1. But I completely agree, this would be as boring as any other way to approach the math if you weren’t already engaged with knitting.

For ideas, get on Ravelry and search for math. (I procrastinated for at least an hour when I shouldn’t have this week after Jackie got me looking at hyperbolic fun again.) The ideas do tend to be elementary or college level with a handful of geometry “standards” thrown in. (I’m afraid of not being able to post this comment if I have too many links. Check your Twitter. Future people, search Wooly Thoughts or Toroidal Snark.)

That said, I could imagine some experiments with gauge leading to discussions about ratio. Also in pattern building discussions looking at how the height of garter rows compares to the width of the stitch. Years ago I saw a “random” cable sweater that could be a tie-in to probability. (Perhaps a bit weak, but if it’s knitting club with math instead of math club with knitting I’m okay with the weakness.)

Those are my gut reactions. I haven’t tried any of this with students. They see me knitting at basketball and football games, but honestly, I haven’t done nearly as much since I started teaching. Keep me updated, and I’ll keep brainstorming.

1. I can see lot’s of algebra in knitting esp. pattern knitting, but I’m pretty convinced it will not be engaging or obvious UNLESS the kids are knitting themselves.

2. I’m not seeing higher level Algebra, but I can see a lot of stuff that is suitable at elementary grades for laying foundations. Am I missing something Sarah (and others) at that goes beyond pre-Algebra?

3. I was about to start a small knitting group of students to test some of the “therapeutic” benefits, and I’m going to try to throw some math into the mix, ideas are welcome.

Thanks as always for letting me pimp on your blog.

BTW: I like how you “framed” the quiltometry.