THE symmetry of a face, the angles of a city skyline, the way fireflies start flickering in unison: Mathematical shapes and patterns are all around us – and they can take our breath away.
“Beautiful mathematics” was the theme of this year’s MathArt Competition, run annually by Nelson Mandela University’s Govan Mbeki’s Mathematics Development Centre (GMMDC). This year it drew more than 350 successful submissions from Grade 7 to 12 learners across the country.
“The MathArt competition aims to create awareness of the connections between mathematics and art and is central to the vision and mandate of our centre to promote creative problem-solving and STEAM education,” said GMMDC Director Prof Werner Olivier.
STEAM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics Education – a shift away from traditional STEM education, and a movement that has been embraced overseas, recognising the valuable role of creativity in the sciences in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Fifty judges working in national and international art, educational and mathematical fields had the gruelling task of selecting the top 20 finalists in each grade.
“Learners had to submit their entries online and then the top 20 in each grade had to send their artworks through to us, for final judging,” said GMMDC competition leader Carine Steyn.
“Some of our artworks had a COVID-19 theme. For instance, one artwork depicted a nurse and highlighted the beauty of precise measurements of oxygen levels and medicine. As always, we were blown away by the talent of our learners – and how they took this year’s topic and really dived into it,” said Steyn.
