Geometry in the Dallas Skyline

By Anne Marie Burdick

Photo 1

As I gazed out at the Dallas skyline, I saw a variety of different shapes among the structures. Right before my eyes I was experiencing how geometry was used in everyday life. These geometric structures are what house the thousands of workers that commute into the city everyday to help make the city flourish. People drive daily under a giant parabola that supports the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge; people eat in a giant sphere that sits above the city; and people sit in giant rectangular prism office buildings. I am now imagining myself sitting in an actual geometry class where my classmates and I dread math and we eagerly anticipate the bell ringing. There is a worksheet in front of me with different 3D shapes and I am not actively engaged. Which above scenario would you rather experience?

Photo 2

If Dallas educators took the time to have students simply look out their windows, they would have the opportunity to see how geometry has created the city they live in. If the skyline is not in site there are thousands of photos on the internet and I guarantee there are plenty of other structures right in the backyard that demonstrate how geometry is used in architecture.  After students have had the opportunity to connect and relate to what they are learning, they will hopefully be more motivated and excited to learn. Here are the stops I made during my tour of Dallas's buildings. I first started out at the American Airlines Center because of the huge arc on the front of the building. I used this structure in my third photo. I then moved to downtown and went to the Renaissance Tower because I liked how the building's windows had symmetric patterns on them. This building is my second photo. I then went to Reunion Tower which is a giant sphere above ground. This structure is in my first photo. Then I stopped by the glass Pyramid on Fairmont. Lastly, I went to Fountain Place. All of these structures were different geometric shapes that could be used in geometry. They all had very unique features and it was easy to see the geometry used in the architecture.

Photo 3

Here is an example of how Dallas geometry teachers could implement architecture and geometry into the classroom. I am going to use the American Airlines Center in this example and connect this structure to an activity that I found online that measures archways. This activity was published in The Mathematics Teacher Journal provided by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  “An Archway Formula” on page 324 is an activity that allows students to discover how to find the radius of the circular archway if they are given the height from the base to the top of the arch and the width of the doorway. Students are able to find their answers by applying the Pythagorean theorem. They could take this activity even further and calculate the radius of an archway in their very own homes!

Retrieved from:
 http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu
/stable/pdf/10.5951/mathteacher.108.5.0324.pdf
?acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true

Another place where you can find geometry in architecture is at the Guilin Garden in Shanghai. This link gives a mini-lesson where students have to look at different wall panels from the garden and answer questions that go along with it. The questions ask about geometric concepts such as tessellation, symmetry, rotational symmetry, and polygons.

By incorporating real world applications into learning, teachers are giving students reasons for why they should believe math is valuable. Students will be able to walk around in their cities and appreciate the math behind the buildings that tower over them. By incorporating architecture with geometry students are getting concrete examples of where they can use the new content they are learning.

Reader Reflections

The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 108, No. 5 (December 2014/January 2015), pp. 324-327

Front Matter

The Mathematics Teacher, Vol. 106, No. 7 (March 2013), pp. 481-483