The Mathematician

You’ve arrived here because your child recently took part in a workshop about patterns called self-similar shapes. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of these before, this page is written to help you talk to your child about the workshop and deepen their learning by giving you some questions you can ask them (and some answers too!).

The workshop was developed by Joe Shimwell from NUSTEM at Northumbria University and Dr Matteo Sommecal, a mathematician from Northumbria University.

Romanesco broccoli or Roman cauliflower, close up shot from abov

Ask your child…

What do you remember about the maths workshop you had today?

They might remember:

that we were looking at self-similar patterns in nature, for example in snowflakes, trees, and plants.
that we drew two of our own self-similar patterns – the Koch Curve and a Sierpinski triangle.
that we asked them to draw their own Sierpinski triangle and upload it to this website to go in our gallery (you can do this at the bottom of this page)

Estuary at Bair Island Marine Park in Redwood City, CA,

Ask your child…

“What skills or attributes did you need to be a mathematician today?”

We talked about 3 skills in our session, find out which skill your children thought they used the most:

being Creative
being Curious
being Logical

Your child came home with a worksheet that asked them to draw their own Sierpinski triangle. There are some instructions on the card to help you and them draw and then decorate the triangle. If they don’t make sense, have a look at the example below.

If you’d like to put your finished triangle into our gallery, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Sierpinski Triangle Generator!

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Upload your Sierpinski Triangle to our gallery!

Use this form to upload a picture of your Sierpinski Triangle. Once we've checked it, we'll add it to the gallery!

Your First Name
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Once you've uploaded the image, we'll check it to make sure it's appropriate and then display it in our online gallery. We aim to upload all images within 7 days of submission.

Please make sure that you have not included any identifiable details on the picture (for example your full name or your face).
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