IDEAS Academy

            The IDEAS Abstract Thought class is combining art and math to explore the concepts of quadratics, trigonometry, linear equations and permutations. Starting second trimester, the students have been creating big and small works of art to both understand the math concepts and teach the rest of the class.

            The class has managed to use all the art forms, but visual arts and creative writing were clearly the most popular. Junior Jacob Olmedo made a dress using a parabola he created, while senior Linsey Walters created a dance showing time and position in a sine graph. Senior Carvella Ray made a beat using sine and cosine, and junior Cherokee Reiley made a poem using linear equations. Many students also created poems, short stories and visual art pieces.

            The first few projects were group projects designed by teacher Peter Woods, including designing a stringed instrument using log functions and a project designing a casino using probability. After these successful projects, Peter gave the class free rein in deciding what to make next.

            "In the beginning, I wasn't quite sure how it would go, but the students showed a huge amount of creativity and [the projects] all turned out incredibly well," he said.

            Woods also says he will definitely be doing these projects with his Abstract Thought class next year.