Around the U.S.

For those who were intrigued by the 2019 National Math Festival, but unable to travel to Washington, D.C., visitors were invited to play along closer to home by visiting one of 80+ museums in 40+ states around the U.S.that offered Zometool Bubble Station demos on Saturday, May 4th. 

Explore Math at a Zometool Bubble Station

Zometool (opens new window) is a construction set that allow players to build beautiful and fascinating models from simple to profound. In fact, NASA has used Zometool for AIDS virus research in space and for a space station project! And the bubbles? Why, they’re soap bubbles, of course – but with a geometric twist.

Can you imagine using a bubble wand and dish soap to make a square bubble? How about a cubic, spiral, saddle-shaped, wormhole, or parabolic-shaped bubble? With the Zometool Bubble Stations, everyone from young kids to grown-up mathematicians will find delight in exploring how the principle of “minimal surfaces” makes possible not just the round soap bubbles we all know from our childhoods, but—with differently shaped Zometool “bubble frames”—geometric soap bubbles of many surprising forms.

Photo Gallery

View the photo gallery from the 2019 Festival Museum Events!

Participating Museums

Museums that are members of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) (opens new window) were invited to celebrate the 2019 National Math Festival by hosting Zometool (opens new window) Bubble Station demos and other mathy activities at their institutions on Saturday, May 4, 2019. You can also read about a Geometric Bubble Blowing event hosted by the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California.

 

 

Celebrate math wherever you are!