Math in the Real World: Student Created Memes

One of my overarching goals for my geometry classes is for students to realize we can find geometry nearly everywhere we look in our everyday lives.  Yes, most of my students can identify the corners of their walls as right angles, they understand the ceiling and floor represent planes, and they are cool with the idea that the rails on train tracks are parallel.  But what I want for students is for them to really see the geometry all around us and for them to begin to see things geometrically even when they're not trying to.

To help develop this habit of mind, I assign students the challenge of creating a meme.  Students must take a picture (searching in Google is not allowed) of something they see in their lives that relates to the geometry concepts we have learned about.  I give students a quick intro to the website addtext.com and set them free.  Students submit their memes on our class Padlet and are able to see the work of their classmates.

I plan to do this same assignment once a quarter.  Here are a few of my favorites from the first quarter.