Share it! Science : Valentine's Day Möbius Strip Serpentine Poetry

When you can integrate multiple subjects your curriculum automatically becomes richer and students immediately benefit. We have a fun and challenging Valentine's Day activity for you that incorporates math and language arts. Your students or kids will have a blast with this STEAM activity.

We've been playing with the idea of Möbius strip hearts inspired by the latest STEAM Kids book, STEAM Kids Valentine's Day. In addition to some fun holiday-inspired art and math, we're also adding a poetry challenge to our Möbius strip hearts.

This post contains affiliate links, see disclosures for more information.

The Math: What is a Möbius Strip?

A Möbius strip is formed when you cut a strip of paper, put one twist in it, and tape the ends together. Although the paper has two sides, in this configuration there is only one continuous surface. In other words, if you draw a line along the paper, you can get all the way around without picking up your pencil.

In mathematical terms, the strip has the property of being non-orientable. It was discovered in the mid-1800's by German mathematician August Ferdinand Möbius.

By David Benbennick (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Create a Valentine's Day Möbius Strip

These fascinating paper creations can be constructed at any point in the year, but creating hearts with them is a fun Valentine's Day twist (see what I did there?).

To learn how to create these heart versions, plus Valentine's rockets, jumbo crystal hearts and many other fun activities, check out the STEAM Kids Valentine's Day e-book.

For a quick tutorial, watch this video.

Integrate Language Arts

To add a bit of language arts to the mix, how about a poetry challenge? Just as the Möbius strip has one surface that goes around and around, how about creating some looping poetry?

Serpentine verse is a line of poetry that begins and ends with the same word.

Here is an example: "love is sharing Rocky Road, the only flavor of ice cream that I love"

Now, write it in a loop and you read: "love is sharing Rocky Road, the only flavor of ice cream that I love is sharing Rocky Road, the only flavor of ice cream that I love..." etc.

Challenge yourself to create a serpentine verse and include it on your Möbius strip heart. Can you write it on the strip before you twist and tape it, or only after?

More Valentine's Day STEAM

To find 13 other STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities with a Valentine's Day theme, check out the STEAM Kids Valentine's Day. It's available as an instant download e-book here. (Live in a VAT country? Get it here)

Want more STEAM? Download the STEAM Kids and STEAM Kids Valentine's Day book bundle for a discounted price on 66 creative projects for kids. That's the type of sweet treat I could go for on Valentine's day!