How tall is the “The Wings” statue on the Siemens Campus in Erlangen? What is the diameter of the discs in the artwork “The Draft”? And how many Schoko Bons would it take to fill both sculptures?
On May 22, around thirty students from grades 8 to 11 from Siemens and Siemens Healthineers partner schools set out to answer these intriguing questions during the 13th Math Day, which transformed the campus into an open-air classroom.
Creativity and brainpower
After exploring, calculating and puzzling, the groups presented the tasks they had devised themselves. The best part: the students themselves got to decide which group would win – using criteria they also set themselves. So the most creative, the trickiest or even the funniest task could come out on top.
In the end, Team BLUE prevailed with a challenge based on “The Draft”: “What is the probability that two cylinders of the given dimensions will lie exactly on top of one another?” Their reward was a very special mascot: a 3-D-printed Siemens unicorn.
“It was a forward-looking workshop that was incredibly fun,” summed up one student.
Math for everyone – stay tuned
Anyone who now wants to go on a math discovery tour themselves will be able to do so in a few months’ time.
An app is currently being developed that will offer a great opportunity to see the campus with fresh eyes – and to put your own math skills to the test in brand-new ways.
Thank you to Bryan Landmann, Chloe Jo and Gamze Sezgin!
