Day 7

Group projects, Anarchie, and Origami

Today began with a bustle. The participants' main mission was to complete their projects before dropping over tonight. After breakfast and Connections at Ashton House, we briskly walked to Beardsley for a full day of computer work. They learned by doing today; not much help from the facilitators was needed. There was a brief demonstration in the late afternoon of Anarchie (search mechanism for FTP) and the new version of Mosaic that works in coordination with news, but that was the only work on the computers that was not group project work.

All groups decided to do Web home pages organizing special topics. Here is a quick preview of the projects that we will hear about tomorrow morning:
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Group 1: AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT IN MATHEMATICS

Mike Diamond
Howard McKenzie
Pat Daley
Saundra Handy

A preliminary organization of this topic includes four headings:

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Groups 2 and 3: GEOMETRY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Jo Baranko
Ruth Carter
Paul Doyle
Allison Venables

Mary Denise Curran
Ben Preddy
Roseanne Ratigan
Cindy Schmalzried

Groups 2 and 3 merged; they worked in the same room and, on comparing notes, they discovered their topics, having to do with geometry, art, and architecture, dovetailed perfectly.

For about two hours this afternoon, Cindy led us by the hand through a fun exercise with Origami. The first thing we all made was the skeleton of an octahedron, which can be very useful for the demonstration of the x, y, and z planes. We all paid close attention to making perfect creases, and we learned a few things about our own dexterity. Next, we each constructed a bow-tie, or a off-center bow-tie, cube. If these two weren't enough, we had the choice of making a more complex cube or a dodecahedron. Most people went back to their group project work, but there were a few diehards (myself included) who stayed with Cindy. Cindy and I were actually crazy enough to construct a dodecahedron while the rest of the group strained their eyes in front of the computer screens. Cindy conducted a great workshop, and I think everyone had a great time.

If I had enough time, or a good enough memory, I would write down all the jokes, jests, and just plain jocular conversational elements. But since I don't have either of the two, I'll just say it was a much needed change of pace this afternoon to pull in the reins before the groups broke loose and ran away with themselves. Also, anyone could see how well everyone has come to know everyone else, and how comfortable we feel with each other. It will be sad to see this group's chemistry disappear (but then again, I guess that's part of what e-mail is for).

:) My last posting will be tomorrow. It will include a full account of each group's project, and a little teary-eyed good-bye. ;) --Heather

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Heather Mateyak / July 13, 1994