The Monument Project

Background

In my Algebra 2 class, students use Wolfram Mathematica to design 3-dimensional objects using different functions and transformations.  In the past few years, I've had students create scale models of the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Washington Monument before I have them work on a design of their own.

Given the protests surrounding monuments this past summer, I decided to have students research a monument and then design their own monument as their first project.  

The Assignment

It was important to me not to proscribe what kind of monument the students should create.  I wanted for them to be empowered to think about something they cared about.  I did do one thing, perhaps to prime their thinking a little -- I asked them to read a short article from history.com about the history of Confederate monuments in the United States.  

My assignment had three parts:

• Choose a monument that exists and do some research.  Why was it built?  Are there people who object to the monument?  What do you think?

• Design a monument meant for a public place that commemorates something you care about.  Why did you choose your subject?  Are there people who might object to your monument?  How would you respond to their objections?

• Summarize all of the above in written, essay form.

My Goals

• To allow my students to bring themselves and what they care about to a math assignment.
• To begin using Mathematica, a program we'll be using through the year.
• To review graphing lines in a challenging way.

The Results

Simply, I was blown away by what my students were thinking about.  Not surprised, but blown away; these can co-exist, ask any teacher.   Written responses demonstrated thoughtfulness and passion for the topics being discussed. Mathematically, students were challenged and worked on the skills I wanted them to practice.

Essentially, each object below is defined by a system of inequalities in 3 variables.   Students were limited by the newness of thinking in 3 dimensions, so the projects ranged in their complexity depending on their comfort with the technology and with the math.

Here are a few examples:

"This is called 'Our Lives'
The top of the monument is a balance, but one side is longer than the other meaning that the the balance in our society might seem equal but the harsh reality is that it isn't."

"I want to display something that resembles something that is all over the place and abstract to display how the Black Lives Matter Movement is all over the place. I do believe that there are a few people who would object to my monument."

"The monument I built represents the ongoing fight against climate change. At least, it serves as motivation that we can come back from the brink."

"I made a monument for the people who have died from Covid-19."

"My monument is called 'The Fight of the Saints'.  Over 1.5 million people died during the Armenian genocide, and they all fought for the survival of their families and friends.  Creating a monument won’t bring these people back but it may remind people of the first genocide of the 20th century and stop it from happening again.
My monument's base is the outline of the present-day Armenia borders, which historically was almost ten times the size. I then created a model of The Cathedral of the Holy Cross, an Armenian Apostolic church located on Akhtamar Island in Turkey. During the Armenian genocide, this church met a very horrible fate. They forced all members of the clergy on a death march out of the country.  They then took everything out of the church and left only the structure. This cathedral met the same fate as almost all other Armenian cathedrals in Turkey and symbolizes a strong cultural factor of Armenians. We hold a lot of pride in having one of the oldest religions in the world. Memorializing this cathedral represents not only the lives that were lost in the genocide, but also the fact that we are still standing today."

Here's a photo of a 3-D printed version of the monument above:

Conclusion

Simply, this was wonderful.  It made a project that I would have done anyway have meaning, allowed students to think about something that they cared about, and let them create something they could be proud of.  They learned some math as well, and I learned something about each of them.