Geometry comes together like quilt
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — Sachi Matsushita likes her students to see the practical application of what she teaches. Call it math in real life.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
In years past, she took algebra students to Wheeler Army Air Field,where they went on a flight simulator to see how math applies to aviation. She took others to see how parabolas — U-shaped graphs — are used at Hawaiian Waters to calculate the rate of speed on the park's water slides.
Kaiser High School student Kuhia Arakaki, left, learns practical aspects of geometry during a quilting session, while Jordan Kaahaaina takes time off from stitching to play with Cameryn McMonigle, 4, daughter of a teacher's helper.
This year her geometry students at Kaiser High School are making quilts.
Along the way, they're learning the practical side of why it's important to measure and to understand rotational symmetries, obtuse and acute angles, isoceles triangles, reflectional symmetry and congruent rectangles — math terms that roll off the tongues of the 20 students in Matsushita's class.
"I like math," said Sean Kau, 14. "But it was tough trying to find the scale factor for our pattern."
Students began working on their practical, real-life application of geometry in January. The class started with one class a week for the planning, designing and drafting of the pattern, using geometric calculations. As the quilts are coming together, the students are working on their quilts most of the time during math.
They are using needle and thread and sewing machines they borrowed. With volunteer help from parents, Matsushita, who said she doesn't know how to sew beyond basic mending, borrowed the idea of quilts and math from an art class that made pillows recently using hand-drawn artwork transferred to the fabric, Matsushita said.
When the five quilts are completed, the class will donate the 3-foot-by-4-foot works to residents at the Hawai'i Kai Retirement Community.
The quilts are made from brightly colored squares of green, pink, purples and reds. One group's quilt uses green and beige rectangles to make a windmill design, another uses reflective triangles of Hawaiian prints to make a square, another used diamond patterns of gold and purple, and still another used triangles of pinks and yellows to make a pinwheel-like design.
"Finding the line of symmetry — the center of the pattern — was challenging," said senior Jordan Kaahaaina, 17.
Students worked in groups of four on the project, which was partially paid for by donations and a federal grant.
The grant focuses on career and technical education as a way to help students learn career skills, said Nanette Umeda, a school college counselor.
"The grant enables us to give teachers an opportunity to make school more real. We also use the grant to fund vocational training, purchase televisions, computers and teacher training," Umeda said.
The school calls the program Ka Pouhana, the guiding post.
Besides learning principles of geometry, the students had to learn to work together and worked to see the relationship between math, fine arts, career and life skills, Matsushita said.
The quilt has proved to the most successful application of math and life skills that she has introduced to her students, she said.
Building the quilt and the paper model was like putting a puzzle together, according to sophomore Jonathan Ho, 16, who said seeing how the parts make a whole was a practical application of the book learning.
"It's been interesting," said 15-year-old Kuhia Arakaki. "We can understand how the geometry is used instead of just doing it on paper. You're actually using what you've learned."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honolululadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
Correction: Jordan Kaahaaina is a senior at Kaiser High School. His name was misspelled in a previous version of this story and caption because of a reporter's error.
