Does math make your brain hurt? If so, you need a teacher like Dr. Angela Zinkl at the Wilson School in Clayton. She makes complicated formulas like Angle of Incidence = Angle of Reflection easy through examples from miniature golf.
For the last three years, she’s challenged her fifth grade class to build Mini-Mini Golf Holes out of shoebox lids as a way to learn geometry and physics.
Discover fun things to do with the family
Subscribe to the St. Louis Family newsletter for family-friendly things to do and news for local parents, sent every Monday.
The resulting tiny golf course is a true STEAM project, using science, technology, engineering, art, and math to create an entire table top golf course. The students design courses using felt, clay, and their trusty protractors. Next, they playtest each hole using a marble as a golf ball. They study the physics of each shot to make sure the tiny hole is not only playable but can be won in a single stroke.
Last year, when Zinkl found out the Sheldon Art Gallery was creating an exhibit on miniature golf, she asked if her students could contribute to the exhibit. The gallery agreed to display the kids’ shoebox golf holes next to the full-size, artist-designed miniature golf course.
This year, the Sheldon asked the Wilson School to enter a full-size exhibit.
Now the sixth graders’ mini-mini golf has grown into an even bigger project. The students held a school-wide vote to find the most popular shoebox golf hole, with Lauren Clearly’s “Lollipop Lane” was the winner.
The kids worked as a team to bring “Lollipop Lane” to life. They scaled up the design, made sure it was ADA compliant, researched what materials they could use—while staying in the budget—and brainstormed decorative elements to make the exhibit visually interesting.
Art teacher Diane Signor joined the project, letting the students use their art time to paint candy-themed pop art to decorate the exhibit space. Zinkl’s husband Ken volunteered to build the wooden base structure for the golf hole, using student-drawn blueprints.
After designing their golf hole and props at school, the students will take a field trip to reassemble the project at the Sheldon Gallery.
You can play Lollipop Lane for yourself—and eight other artist-designed golf holes—when Golf the Galleries opens June 1. The exhibit is family-friendly and open to the public all summer.
Golf the Galleries—Artist Designed Mini Golf | June 1 – August 11
Tee times: Monday through Friday, noon to 8 p.m. (last tee time: 7 p.m.); Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (last tee time: 2 p.m.); Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (last tee time: 3 p.m.)
Tickets: $10 for Adults, $6 for children. Sheldon members receive a $2 discount.
