Educational activities related to Dissections: Plane & Fancy


Courses taught using the book

Quincy University
Spring 1999: Vince Matsko, (link has expired) taught HON 316, "Geometric Dissections: A Bridge Between Art and Mathematics".
Spring 2000: Vince taught the same course again.
Spring 2002: Vince taught the same course yet again!
Heather Smoley and Lisa DePauw, two students in Vince's course, contacted me regarding final projects in the course, on hinged dissections.
Vince has written a short article (link has expired) on how to use the book in an undergraduate honors course.
Honors program at University of Maryland
Fall 2002: Tzong-Yow Lee, (link has expired) taught HONR 209X, "Toys of Mathematics". (link has expired) Dissections: Plane & Fancy was one of seven references listed under "Toys will be made, and their math content discussed, based on sources such as, but not restricted to, the following."
Fall 2003: Prof. Lee started teaching the same course, HONR 209X Toys of Mathematics, (link has expired) again. Dissections: Plane & Fancy was one of six books listed under "Toys will be made, and their math content discussed, based on sources such as, but not restricted to, the following."
Sadly, on October 14, 2003, Prof. Lee died of stomach cancer. At the time, he was just a week shy of 45. He left a wife and a 12-year-old son. (See the announcement.) (link has expired)

Survey articles based on the book

La Recherche and Tangente l'Aventure Mathématique (link has expired)
"L'art des dissections géométriques," a French translation of a survey article that I wrote, appeared simultaneously in special issues of La Recherche, Numéro exceptionnel, Mai-Juin 2000, pages 44-46, and in Tangente l'Aventure Mathématique, Numéro 74, Avril-Mai 2000, pages 44-46. Tangente is published by the Comité International des Jeux Mathématiques (CIJM). The special issue, edited by Gilles Cohen and entitled "Jeux mathématiques," is devoted to mathematical games and puzzles. See the complete list of math articles in La Recherche.
Archimedes (link has expired)
"The art and mathematics of geometric dissections," a survey article that I wrote, appeared in Archimedes, volume 42, number 2, Autumn 2000, pages 33-35. Archimedes is a popularly written natural science magazine for secondary school students. It is published in South Africa by the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology (FEST).

Student presentations based on the book

Moravian College Student Mathematics Conference (link has expired)
Julie Jones, a student at Moravian College, gave a talk, "Dissections: Plane and Fancy", at the conference, which was held on Saturday, February 26, 2000.
Pi Mu Epsilon Student Presentations (link has expired) at Mathfest 2001 (links are now stale)
Julie Jones also gave a talk, "Dissections: Plane and Fancy", at this conference, which was held in Madison, Wisconsin, August 1-4, 2001.

Use in student mathematics competitions

Chalk Talk Bibliography (link has expired) for Math Field Day 2003, at the University of Michigan, Flint.
The two topics for the chalk talks are "Recurrence Relations" and "Geometric Dissections". Dissections: Plane & Fancy is one of eight entries in the bibliography for dissections. The Math Field Day is an annual competition for high school students, held on February 25 in 2003.

Use in student research projects

Two-hand Dissections of Orthogonal Polygons (link has expired) describes a research project that Irena Pashchenko did as an undergraduate for Joseph O'Rourke.
DARIN BRINDLE's REU 2014 (link has expired) describes a DIMACS REU project "Applications of Dissecting Polygons up to Higher Dimensions" That Darin Brindle (from Morgan State University did under the guidance of Dr. Vinay Vaishampayan in the summer of 2014.

Link on resources site

A+ Compass: Resources, a site that provides instructional tools for mathematics teachers, places my first three books at the head of its Recommended Reading List!


Last updated March 21, 2019.