Students Collaborate on PBL Mosaic

Geometry students and art students are working this semester with artist-in-residence Chris Zonta, who is working with the group to create a mosaic that will be permanently displayed in our math and science hallway.

Zonta, who works with schools across the Chicagoland area to create magnificent, permanent mural displays, discussed the design with the group, how she created the perfect angles and shapes–using geometry–and how the students will work with her to create the mosaic. She demonstrated how to use the tile and glass cutting instruments and how they will place them on the four panels.

Students are also creating individual mosaics that will be temporarily displayed at school. The students are thrilled to be working on this exciting and practical use of math every Tuesday this semester. Zonta explains, “The patterns of math that we an find in this kind of design are fascinating.”

ICJA students are focusing on problem based learning (PBL), where students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem, in classes across subjects this year. Read more about PBL projects at ICJA this year.

No doubt, these students will have no reason to ask in geometry this year, “Why are we learning this?”

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