This session will begin with a brief history of Escher accompanied by pictures made by converting many of my personal photos to overhead slides. We will follow his trail to the Alhambra in Spain where he studied and copied some Islamic art and observe many different examples of that same art in Granada, Spain. Slides from Uzbekistan, a fascinating country in Central Asia, show some stunning Islamic art on a grandiose scale including many interesting mathematical ideas. We will return to Italy where he lived and worked and view some of the scenes that he painted along his beloved Amalfi Coast.

Before using the computers, we will do a short, simple hands-on activity with paper and pencil to get a feel for what is involved in creating a tessellation.

For the computer portion of this session, we will be using the software, TesselMania! Deluxe, Version 1.01 distributed by MECC. We will "learn the math of tessellations" from the software itself and then enjoy using modern technology, a great computer program and mathematics to create some Escher-type tessellations!

This session is listed as a middle school session, but it is appropriate over a wider range of levels. Middle-schoolers and high-schoolers love it, pre-schoolers and grade-schoolers love it, andÖso do adults. Over the years, I have personally observed persons of all ages get HOOKED on this activity, both on and off the computer!

Gay Nixon
gaynixon@juno.com