June 8, 2016 • By Sue Postema Scheeres

Math and dance may not seem to have a lot in common at first glance. But a group of students from Wiggins School District in eastern Colorado recently discovered the relationship between geometry and movement thanks to a program offered through the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

“We wanted to give students a chance to access math in a different way. Building kinesthetic and visualization skills is really important as students learn more difficult math concepts and skills, and our program encourages students to explore these concepts through movement,” said Amanda Benzin, who recently graduated from CU-Boulder with a master’s of fine arts in dance.

Benzin and CU-Boulder engineering student Maddie King taught two math and movement workshops on Wednesday at Wiggins High School, one for third to fifth graders and the other for sixth to eighth graders.

The workshops are part of a summer enrichment program through the Wiggins School District that serves advanced learners of all ages. This program, formally known as College for Kids, is designed to go beyond the classroom curriculum, exploring academic studies through innovative and creative hands-on experiences, said Fran Covelli, the district’s gifted and talented coordinator.

This is the seventh year of the program, which includes science, math, theater and creativity workshops that also focus on postsecondary and career readiness expectations.

“Outreach programs, such as the math and movement program through CU-Boulder, provide access for rural students to extend their learning beyond their local community. The outreach activities also increase students’ awareness about the university,” said Covelli.

During the math and movement workshops, the dance instructors asked the students to make circles, triangles, squares and even decagons using different parts of their bodies and to notice how moving from one shape to another created a dance. The students also worked together to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes with their bodies, figuring out how to move together while retaining the shapes.

The goal of the program is to build curiosity about math through movement and for students to learn how to solve math problems on their own and as a team using their bodies, Benzin said.

“They explored concepts like radius and diameter and circumference and even more complicated aspects of geometry with their bodies. The more ways we learn things, the longer we can retain it,” Benzin said.

CU-Boulder dance students – along with CU-Boulder alumna Stephanie Tuley who studied math and dance – designed this program for all ages, and will be heading to Trinidad later this month for a repeat performance. This outreach program was sponsored by the CU-Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement.