Golden Ratio Spritivity
Projects at Stoke Newington School,
London
The Golden
Ratio
(φ) is
approximately equal to;
1.61803 39887 49894
84820 45868 34365 63811 77203 09179 80576
....
but is often shortened to 1.618,
just as pi is shortened to 3.145.
The Golden Ratio is a fascinating number
which appears everywhere from nature to art.
The "Golden Rectangle" is a
rectangle whose length and height is determined by the
"Golden Ratio". It is deemed to be the most aesthetically
pleasing rectangle possible.
Instantiations of the
Golden Ratio in art, design, nature, religious symbolism
and architecture
A group of 11 and 12 year-old students,
from Stoke Newington Secondary School Year
7 Mathematics class, decided to develop projects which
explore instantiations of the golden ratio, and the
golden rectangle, in range of specific contexts in
artefacts displayed in the British Museum, and in the
architecture of the British Museum itself.
The
British Museum, established by an Act of Parliament on 7
June 1753, celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2003. It
holds in trust for the nation and the world a collection of
artefacts (art and antiquities) from ancient and living
cultures, housed in one of Britain's architectural
landmarks. The British Museum's collection is one of the
finest in existence, spanning two million years of human
history.
The
fundamental grounding of the artefacts that the class of
Stoke Newington School students explored in their visit to
the British Museum was physical and structural, so the
students could photgraph or video them.
However, the students could also expore other kinds of
groundings – Aesthetic, Functional, Cultural/Social and
Historical – in the specific context of each artefact, This
exploration provided an oppotuntiy for the students to
learn about many cultures of the world, including that of
China. They could also use Spritivity concepts to make
their own creative interpretions of these instantiations
and their groundings through the mrdia of posters,
powerpoint presentations and movies.
The schedule fo development of thes projects had four
stages: The frist three stages ware in Jne 2007, the fouths
stage was in september 2007.
In stage
1, Students were introduced introduced to the
concepts of symmetry and the golden ratio (GR) by their
Mathematics teacher, with the aid of a PowerPoint
presentation. They found out about the occurrence of GR in
the nature, the human body, in arts and architecture.
Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation on the
Golden Ratio
In Stage 2,
Twenty-nine students and four teachers made a one day visit
to the British Museum. Upon arrival, they split into four
groups.
Each group was equipped with digital cameras and a
video-camera in order to take pictures and to record the
features of the building and of the artefacts on display
that they thought contained instantiations of the golden
ratio.
View pictures of architecture
and artefacts taken by the students
The students visited the Museum's galleries containing
artefacts from Greece and Roman Empire, Middle East, China
and Asia, and Europe. They took photos and video-recorded
their experiences as part of the videodiary they were
keeping on their projects
View a video made by a group of
students about their visit
In Stage 3, Each
of the four groups of students created a poster on the
Golden Ratio for display within Stoke Newington School
displays. They used, as resources for this work, a
selection of pictures, drawings and other information,
including some of the pictures they had taken during their
museum visit.
Making
posters
View the poster-making
process
Later, in Septemebr 2007 each
group of students made a PowerPoint presentation of the
results of their work on instantiations of the golden ratio
in artefacts displayed in the British Museum, and in the
architecture of the British Museum.
T