Investigating The Design Of An Aesthetic Mathematical Experience
Abstract
In this thesis, I am going to share my analysis of an aesthetic mathematical experience which happened while I designed and created a pop-up math story. My aim in analyzing this experience is to better understand it and to make a model for other educators who are seeking to design aesthetic mathematical experiences. My research question is: What factors come into play when an educator immerses herself in the process of designing an aesthetic mathematical experience? My research uses qualitative analysis with a focus on narrative inquiry. My focus is on my personal experience designing a mathematics curriculum experience for students, using the context of a popup story that I authored. To better understand my experience, it is appropriate to see it as a narrative that I lived and to analyze it using narrative inquiry. The analysis of my experience identified five factors that came into play: surprise/insight, constructing, immersion, ‘seeing as”, and audience.