From construction with ruler and compasses to 3D printing, mathematics at the service of cultural heritage. Erasmus Project

Project Title

From construction with ruler and compasses to 3D printing, mathematics at the service of cultural heritage.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

From construction to ruler and compass to 3D printing, mathematics at the service of cultural heritage.

In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, writer and math teacher, writes:
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
This sentence, for a student, contains two challenges: to translate it into his mother tongue and to understand the mathematical paradox it raises.
Mathematics, because of its often discriminatory nature at the time of further study, suffers from an aura of austerity and abstraction. The learning of English, for its part, comes up against apprehension of speaking and the few opportunities to practice it that our students have.
“Archi8ure” aims to remedy these problems through a European cultural and heritage project, which aims to be a bridge between the origins of mathematics and their anchoring in the digital era; a project where the English language will be a vector of communication, allowing our learners to acquire vocabulary and oral fluency.
Doing math and English with allies is at the heart of the “Archi8ure” project.
Three countries participate: France, Greece and Portugal. Ten participants per country, aged 15 to 17, will take part in the project, accompanied by teachers of English, mathematics, geography, computer science, plastic arts and socio-cultural education. A French architect, also a professor at the Clermont-Ferrand School of Architecture, will be an external speaker and will support the students from a technical point of view concerning architectural designs.
Three mobilities will take place. The first will be in Greece, the land of origin of ruler and compass geometry. The 30 students participating in the project will make a visual analysis of the Roman vaults. They will then be responsible for mobilizing their basic mathematical knowledge to redraw these geometric structures with a ruler and a compass. Once this two-dimensional work is done, the time will come to create the patterns for these vaults to build them in 3 dimensions out of paper. This work will be carried out in small multi-national groups, in English. This will be an opportunity to anchor mathematics in reality, bringing it back to life and consistency in the eyes of the students, and to use English as a common language. The last stage of mobility will consist of modeling these vaults and printing them in 3 dimensions. The use of the digital tool will also be an opportunity to show the participants to what extent mathematics and English are significant in new technologies. The second mobility will take place in Portugal, it will be modeled on the same model, but this time the Gothic style will be studied, allowing to reinvest the learning of mobility in Greece and to continue progress through a slightly more complex style. ‘from a mathematical point of view. The last mobility will be in France. This mobility will give rise to an original architectural creation, mixing Romanesque and Gothic styles, where participants will be able to give free rein to their imagination, under the guidance of the architect. The idea is to build an original and multi-cultural arch with particular attention given to the keystone, a metaphor for the importance of each country in the complete building that represents the project. A half-day will be devoted to the organization of workshops for the creation of models of arches for students from surrounding schools and for the general public, led in English by the project participants. The mobility will end with a vernissage of 3D prints at the Clermont-Ferrand School of Architecture.
Through an architectural production, in 3D printing, of a Romanesque vault, a Gothic vault and the creation of an original vault mixing the styles of the partner countries, this project will allow participants to:
– reinvest the main mathematical skills of the college during ruler and compass constructions,
– develop skills in creating 3D paper models and therefore mobilize mathematical skills in the service of intellectual and manual creation work.
– develop skills in the digital field through 3D modeling and printing.
– develop English language skills both in terms of rich vocabulary and in terms of oral communication skills.
The project will accentuate the feeling of European belonging of all its participants.
The benefits will be immediately exploitable by the pupils at their level of education, by the teachers concerning their teaching practices and by the establishments in terms of communication and influence of their establishment.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 98981 Eur

Project Coordinator

EPLEFPA de Brioude-Bonnefont & Country: FR

Project Partners

• 1o GENIKO LYKEIO AIGIOU
• Escola Secundária de Vila Verde