Shining light on geometry

.Marisa O’Neil

Nobody wants to stay cooped up in a classroom on a beautiful, warm

day to study math. Especially when you can see the waves crashing

outside the window.

So Newport Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Jeff Hurst took

his class outside to their beachfront playground for a sunny geometry

lesson on Monday.

With some sidewalk chalk, twine and wooden dowels, students

fashioned giant-sized compasses. After doing some basic circles and

lines labeled “diameter,” “chord” and “tangent,” they got down to the

fun stuff -- drawing colorful flowers.

“They’re exploring the properties of arcs,” Hurst explained. “But

yeah, they’re making flowers.”

Using the twine compass, each group of two drew huge circles on

the blacktop, then created a series of arcs that linked up to form

petals. They filled in their drawings with different-colored chalk

and some, like 10-year-old Mia Van Bergh, added an artist’s

signature.

“You’re coloring it orange?” Mia asked another group as she

surveyed their work.

“Yeah,” 11-year-old Sean Sullivan replied.

“Ew,” Mia exclaimed quietly, after a short pause.

Nate Gould, 10, and Chase Pennington, 11, super-sized their

drawing. It sprawled a good 10 feet across the blacktop.

About 25 feet away, a meticulously colored flower was already

finished. Warnings written on the pavement around the flower advised

trespassers to stay away, lest the work be defiled.

“Do not touch!” 11-year-old Taylor French and Carolyn Kinnear had

written next to a large circle marking their territory. “Do not pass

line!”

Taylor stepped inside to make a quick touch up.

“You guys passed the line,” 11-year-old Nick Albertini pointed

out.

“It’s ours,” Taylor reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “My bad.”

But despite their warnings, Taylor and Carolyn realized the nature

of their work was transitory.

“It won’t last past recess when all the little kids come out in a

minute,” Carolyn said, glancing toward the school gates through which

scores of first- and second-graders would soon flow.

“Tragic,” she added with a sigh.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Marisa O’Neil visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa

area and writes about her experience.