Newswise — Students at Franklin Avenue Elementary School and nearby Westfield State College created a mural of President Barack Obama — in dominoes. The official unveiling of the mural — called Obaminoes — took place at 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 16, in the school cafeteria.
Julian F. Fleron, professor of mathematics at Westfield State, said the work is a based on a design by Robert A. Bosch, a mathematician at Ohio's Oberlin College, who created the mural's plans for Obama's inauguration.
"Bosch has many wonderful domino designs, including Abraham Lincoln and Marttin Luther King Jr, which have been made by many groups of schoolchildren," Fleron said. "However, this Obaminoes installation is only the second of its kind in the world — and the first ever created by an elementary school."
A group of middle school students working after school in Shelby, Miss., also constructed the Obama mura1 in honor of his inauguration.
Obaminoes is the largest Bosch design in terms of the number of dominoes used, Fleron said. It took 2,420 dominoes — 44 complete sets of double-nine dominoes to create the mural of the 44th president. The mural, which will be on permanent display at the school, is 4-feet tall and almost 6.5-feet wide.
Fleron oversaw the project, along with Leslie Clark-Yvon, principal at the Franklin Avenue school and a former teacher-in-residence at the college. Fleron is the mathematics liaison to the Franklin Avenue school through the Westfield Professional Development Schools Network, a partnership between the college and area public schools to development creative teaching programs.
The college's Division of Academic Affairs, Department of Education and several individual faculty and staff members at both schools also supported the project. Several college students and the entire K-5 student body constructed the mural, working in small groups to make 55 individual sections.
"The Obaminoes mural is an excellent example of the college's primary mission at work — learning combined with community service," said Evan S. Dobelle, president of Westfield State. "Everyone involved, from kindergarten students to the college faculty, expanded their mathematics skills and had fun in the process."
"What is really amazing about this project was watching it all happen, listening to and taking part in the excitement of the children's learning," Clark-Yvon said. "Every part of the work (even the challenges) brought a smile to the faces of everyone involved. Everyone said it was neat, awesome, cool. That is why we are teachers — the look of love of learning on children's faces."
"The discussions that went on around this project were incredible," she said, adding that they related not only to math, but also to social studies and art. The project also was a good practice in cooperation — learning the construction of the project from adults other than regular schoolteachers, working with the college volunteers to get all the stages completed.
Obaminoes was a learning experience at all levels, Fleron said. It involved using some of the most sophisticated to the most basic mathematical tools, and was also related to other disciplines, such as art and social studies.
The creation of Obaminoes involves the use of a mathematical algorithm known as linear programming, Fleron said. "This has been called the most important real-world mathematics problem, with applications in such areas as transportation, telecommunications and all large scale production and distribution."
"The construction of Obaminoes required a wealth of counting, sorting and classifying, measurement, coordinate geometry, symmetry, patterns and reasoning tools and problem solving," Fleron said. "All of these areas are central parts of the mathematics curriculum. There was a ton of learning going on."
"For the 5 to 11 year olds that make up the student body at Franklin Avenue Elementary, this past presidential election may serve as their earliest important political memory," Fleron said. "We hope their memories of this time, and this project, will spur lifelong participation in the political process."
The project also involved construction of a grid strong enough to mount the panels — a design similar to an airplane wing — and discussion of artistic techniques, such a pointillism and photomosaics.
Students, who saw their finished project for the first time at the unveiling, were clearly proud and enthusiastic. They sang, This Land is Your Land, and Fifty Nifty United States, and handed out dominoes with a miniature mural, made by Fleron, to guests.
Fifth grade student Nathaniel Brady said, "I thought it was fun and it actually gave us hands-on experience instead of doing a lot of paperwork."
"It helped me do fractions and stuff and practice adding together," said 4th grade student Conlan Spinale. "And it was fun."
In addition to the 250 elementary students and their teachers, the unveiling ceremony attracted several guests and dignitaries. They included representatives of Congressman John W. Olver and State. Sen. Michael R. Knapik, as well as State Rep. Donald F. Humason Jr, Superintendent of Schools Shirley Alvira and Westfield State College President Evan S. Dobelle.
More details can be found on the Obaminoes project's website, http://obaminoes.wsc.ma.edu, where Fleron offers more in-depth information on linear programming and how to investigate linear programming at the K-5 level.
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