2024 CMESG/GCEDM WG A: Living world/ Monde vivant: Day 1, Saturday June 1: Earth

On Day 1, we get the chance to meet each other and meet the place we will be working and learning from: the Boisé de la Santé ('Health and Wellbeing Woods') on the Laval University campus.

Activities for today:

Sit Spots (see this short piece by David Strich for some background)

A sit spot should be chosen as a place that somehow calls to you -- a spot that you will be happy to revisit frequently, observe with all your senses, notice things and fellow beings that share this spot, and be a kind of 'home base' for your experiences in this place.

We will take about 15 minutes at the beginning of each day to visit our sit spots and notice, reflect and connect with what is going on there. There will be prompts and suggestions for a variety of ways to connect with senses, feelings and ideas each day.

(Some of our suggested prompts may involve:

Writing mathematical poetry/ecopoetry
Soundscaping
Sketching with an eye to line and angle

…and more…)

Land shapes (Nenad)

In this activity, we explore mathematics and develop the language of walking on a surface such as a path, hill or a depression.

Things to try:

-Walking at the same height. What is the shape of the path that you are tracing?

-Walking the steepest path (make sure it is safe). What does the path look like? How long is it?

-Walking the least steep path. What does the path look like? How long is it?

-Try optimizing other elements (length of path, speed, the angle your body makes with the surface)

Touch and texture (Nenad)

What kinds of language, geometries, diagrams can you develop for different surfaces that you see? Finding, drawing, photographing and patterning in different tree barks

Drawing leaves with compass and straightedge (Susan)

This activity was inspired by Kimberly Elam's book, Geometry of Design (2001/ 2011), PrincetonArchitectural Press. Elam looks at poster and painting designs and designed furniture, cars, etc. in terms of compass and straightedge compositions.

What if we did something similar with, say, a leaf, or other living things in the forest or garden?

Here’s an article written by Robyn Massel (then a teacher candidate) and me about just such an experiment with her high school math class.

Let’s try it: first choosing a leaf (or blossom, or …?) that has an intriguing shape, and then working out a way to draw it as closely as possible to its real shape using just straightedge and compass.