Sayers, N. (2025, January 21). Nick Sayers interview [Video]. Vimeo.
Stop 1: 02:43 – 03:34
Sayers discusses how he began tearing and slotting together plastic tea cups to create modular polyhedral sculptures. He was looking for a more "geometrically symmetric" way to build a sphere than traditional methods. For a teacher in BC, this is a great look at the ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies) cycle. It moves geometry from a textbook exercise into a hands-on prototyping challenge. It’s a "low-floor, high-ceiling" activity where students can explore Shape and Space (Math 8/9) by physically building the "nets" of 3D objects using recycled waste. This is another activity that I could try with my Math 8.
Stop 2: 06:48 – 07:11
Sayers recalls his childhood experience with a Sinclair ZX81 computer, calling programming "maths by stealth". He mentions that while he found mental arithmetic "terrifying," he thrived in the logic of coding. This is a vital perspective for reframing Numeracy in our classrooms. At McRoberts, I see this daily in my IT classes: students who struggle with the "number facts" of regular math often excel when the focus shifts to pure logic and reasoning. By emphasizing symbols and structures over arithmetic, we can reach students who have a high potential for Computational Thinking but suffer from traditional math anxiety. These classes allow them to develop the logical thinking required for university-level work, even in majors where traditional calculus is not a prerequisite.
Stop 3: 36:00 – 38:00
Sayers demonstrates a bicycle-based drawing machine where the complexity of the art is dictated by the prime factorization of the teeth on the gears. He notes that complexity comes from mathematical relationships, not speed. This is such a powerful visual for teaching fractions and ratios. Often, when I review prime factorization in the fraction unit, it feels like an abstract chore for students, just a way to simplify fractions. But seeing it manifest as the "petals" of a drawing makes the math feel alive. It connects to the "Power Technology" side of our curriculum and reminds me that my job is to show students the "invisible engine" of prime numbers that runs the world around them.
Stop 4: 01:46:20 – 01:55:10
Sayers discusses his "Body Miniaturizer," a mechanical drawing machine that traces a person while a pen draws them at exactly 1:6 scale through a mechanical linkage called a pantograph. In the Math 9 curriculum, we teach linear relations and scale factors as static concepts on a Cartesian plane. This machine turns those coordinates into a physical performance. It’s a powerful reminder that scaling isn't just a multiplication problem on a worksheet - it’s a physical reality. Students who struggle to solve for x in a proportion can immediately see the point of it here: if the math is wrong, the drawing is distorted. This stop makes me want to move the desks aside and have students build their own linkages to see how a change in a pivot point (a variable) changes the entire output.
Understanding math-art connections and what to offer
Sayers’ work shifts the perspective of math from a "filter" (something you have to pass to get somewhere else) to a "medium" (something you use to build). It shows that art isn't just about the finished drawing; it’s about the mathematical constraints you set up to let that drawing happen. The "beauty" in his work lies in the elegance of the logic behind the visual. Sayers demonstrates that the logic employed in a computer lab is the same logic used in a bicycle gear or a sandcastle fractal. He provides a model for experiential learning, demonstrating that we don't just learn math to know it - we learn it to apply it. It validates the shift in our curriculum toward "Big Ideas" - understanding that ratios, symmetry, and scale are tools for interpreting the world.
Question:
In our current digital age, students are used to seeing images as 'data.' Your walk-in cameras make the physics of light a physical, 'embodied' experience
Bravo! What great connections you've made here with our work as teachers and with the BC Curriculum. I love the idea of math as medium rather than as filter. Wonderful depth of thought and writing here!
ReplyDeleteHi Kabula, I'm really impressed with how you've made such meaningful connections to the BC curriculum and your own classroom. I really connect with your section on "math by stealth" - almost feeling like we have to trick students by doing non-numeracy based mathematics such as logic and reasoning forms. Unfortunately a lot of the discourse around computer science/software engineering scares students away because they are told there is "a lot of math involved", but many would thrive in these environments because the type of math is quite different than what they are traditionally exposed to early on.
ReplyDeleteKabula, please let me know if you are willing to share this with Nick Sayers (or not). I am going to send him the responses from those interested in sharing asap. Thank you!
ReplyDelete