Although the butterflies are the stars of the show in the Texas Discovery Gardens, they’re not the only interesting and beautiful things you’ll see there. There’s also a breathtaking array of different plant species, some of which you’re not likely to see in everyday life. There’s a wide enough range of species that you can […]
Before you get down to the butterfly nursery on the lower level of the Texas Discovery Gardens, let’s see if you can figure out, on average, how often a new butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. How might you go about that? Well, it would be useful to know that the average lifespan of a butterfly […]
Turning from the shape of a butterfly’s path through the air to the shape of the butterfly itself, what do you notice about the shapes of the creatures you see all around you in the air? First, it might strike you that there are so many different shapes! It seems as though every kind of […]
As you walk through the butterfly room of the Texas Discovery Gardens, take time to slow down and notice what’s going on in the space around you. What do you notice about the flight of the butterflies? I spent some time watching the different flight paths used by different butterflies. What shapes of paths in […]
In the foyer of the Texas Discovery Garden you will likely notice this wall of cubbies. What does it remind you of? A honeycomb, of course! But did it ever occur to you to wonder why bees build honeycombs in the shape they do? It turns out there is a simple mathematical reason that they […]
As you walk around the butterfly aviary in the Texas Discovery Gardens, you may see some bright blue butterflies like the one in this picture. If you see one land, you may see it close its wings and discover that the undersides of the wings are a dull brown-grey. But what if I told you […]
This post describes supplies for the activities in Imago Mobiles and how to prepare them. First, you will need straight beams with regularly spaced holes. Ideally the center one will be labeled with a “0”, the two adjacent to the center labeled with “1”s, the next two out labeled with “2”, and so on. You […]
Before you leave the Texas Discovery Gardens, be sure to appreciate Imago, the public art installation in the entrance foyer of the Gardens inspired by many aspects of the insect and plant life that abound there. But how can it also inspire us mathematically? There are likely many ways, but one important way is by […]
In collaboration with talkSTEM, to take part in the upcoming Earth X conference at Dallas Fair Park, I designed a “mini” math tour of four stops at some of the highlights of the lovely architecture found there. Hopefully you can come to Earth X and take part yourself in seeing some of the beautiful buildings created […]
Perhaps the most eye-catching feature of Dallas Fair Park is the gold-leaf wrapped Tower Building. Yes, that is real gold! Because of the allure and attraction of gold, our first math walk stop in Fair Park will be to ask, “How much is all of that gold on the Tower Building worth?” Before we go […]