How is math creative?
Creativity is defined as “the use of imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” Most people do not think of math as being a creative study, but it is! In math there is not just one way to solve a problem. Math is multidimensional. Some components of a creative math classroom include:
Collaboration
Students collaborate with others on ideas, and share what works for particular problems. Students have the opportunity to reflect in groups and ask questions of each other’s thinking. In this structure, they might learn to think in a new way and learn alternative paths for solving.
2. Integration of the arts
You might not know it, but math is in the arts. For example, many Renaissance painters and sculptors had to know the measurements, so their sculptures or paintings. When creating, these artists had to scale up or down to keep the overall real dimensions of a human or animal they were sculpting.
Math is also in music. When you are playing an instrument you have to count the beats. Sometimes there are 4 beats in a measure where other times there might be 6 or even 2. Each note has a designated length of time. For example, a quarter note gets one beat, a half note gets two beats and a whole note gets four beats.
There is even a time signature that indicates each beat is divided in half so instead of getting 2 beats for a half note, it would get one.
3. Connection to the real world
Number patterns like the Fibonacci sequence have been seen in art and music, but also manifest in nature. Patterns like this help predict what is coming next. Trees and snowflakes showcase math, but we also see this pattern in architecture.