If you enter Madison Square Park in New York City from the south end, your eye will be immediately drawn to the latest sculpture installation, Buckyball, by artist Leo Villareal. These nesting spherical fullerenes, inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, are lined with LED tubes that light the sculpture in hypnotic ways. The sculpture is the perfect thing to get you in the mood for what now lies at the north end of the park, The Museum of Mathematics.
Though I like to consider myself a creative person, and one who likes math, I'll fully admit that when I heard there was going to be a Museum of Mathematics opening in town I pictured something dry for hard-core math nerds.
Instead, MoMath, as it's now known, is a wonderland for kids. I'd argue that kids don't even have to particularly like math to like this two-story hands-on playspace, but it doesn't hurt.
My 7-year-old is a self-proclaimed math lover, and she was thrilled to be there. My 2-year-old doesn't even know what math is, and he had a great time, too.
Just about everything in MoMath is hands on, from tessellating tiles (my daughter's favorite part) to puzzles that can be done in small groups. The downstairs area has a floor maze that can only be completed by making right turns. I'm embarrassed to say that we left without finding the solution, but in my defense, it was super crowded on the day that we were there and we couldn't patiently work through it without crashing into people.
The top floor has some exhibits that kids can ride on, like a bike with square wheels that's been featured in MoMath's traveling exhibit, the Math Midway. I asked my daughter to hypothesize about the smoothness of the ride. She looked at the arcs on the circular course and determined it would be a smooth ride, then got on and found it to be hard work but relatively smooth to complete the circle. Both kids got on the Coaster Roller, where they could pull themselves for a ride over some odd-shaped rollers.
After being there for a while, I thought, "well, the kids are having fun, but how much math are they really learning?" I started looking for more information to share with them, and that's when I noticed the information kiosks populating the museum. In each area, these kiosks are loaded with information about the exhibits that surround them, so we got in the habit of checking these regularly to learn more.
MoMath is perfect for my 7-year-old math geek. She could spend an hour just tessellating, and another hour putting together the building toys available at the table in the front. We'll head back on a day when it's a little quieter to get our hands on some of the puzzles and games we didn't have to try. I saw kids older than my daughter having a good time, too.
As for younger kids, I found plenty of places to park my 2-year-old. There were geometric pillows that he started to play with, then we realized some big kids were trying to assemble them into a cube. (They adapted their challenge and were trying to find ways to build it around my son, trapping him in the middle. Good sports.) He also had a blast "making moiré patterns" at the light table. In reality, he was just stacking the plastic discs, but I like to think some math was seeping into his little developing brain.
For more information about some of our favorites parts of the museum, you can also check out my guest post at The Maker Mom. Try to make it by February 15th, which is the last day to see Buckyball in the park. And a pro tip: you're right near two of New York City's kid-appropriate culinary wonders, Shake Shack in the middle of the park, and Mario Batali's Eataly a block away. Plan a trip to MoMath around a mealtime.
