Alex Romero

Man in a laundromat looking at pictures of digital knots on a tablet.

My dad continuing his study of knot theory in #tileFarmStudio at a laundromat in Berkeley, CA.

I would be surprised if it works on physiologically relevant scales. Wouldn’t be surprised if it is several orders of magnitude below having any effect.

Happy brrrrrthday

February Design Contest: 26 for the Year - Tile Farm To celebrate 2026, we’re hosting a February design contest with the theme “26”! Create anything you’d like in Tile Farm Studio that connects to 26 in some way—use 26 tiles, build something with the nu...

Hosting a #mathart design contest with a chance to win some cool merch!

tilefarm.com/design-conte...

Four groups of little hearts with 12, 15, 22, and 5 in each group.

Here’s a special Valentine’s Day crypto tiles puzzle. Can you tell what it says?

Image of four tiles that spell a word when you know the code. Presented by Alex Romero as co-founder of Tile Farm

Definitely going to add activities from @tilefarmer.bsky.social to my math routines! #NCTMIndy2026

"Tidal Twist"

Coiled toroid with sinusoidally modulated radius.

(78a)

#CreativeCoding #DigitalArt #MathArt #MathSky #SciArt

#elemMathChat #NCTM #cryptography

NCTM in big letters

If you are at #NCTMIndy26 come to one of my talks!

Tile Talk: A Daily Math Routine to Build Number Sense
Thursday, Feb 12, 2026 | 11:30 AM (JW Ballroom 1)

Secret Codes and Creative Thinking
Bridging Math and Literacy with Typography and Cryptography
Thursday, Feb 12, 2026 | 2:30 PM (Room 309-3)

This is a good and surprisingly difficult tile counting problem

The image shows a circular arrangement of six flower-like shapes with 21st Century Pattern Blocks, leaving an empty, flower-shaped space in the center. Each flower has a central equilateral triangle composed of three teal kites, which is then surrounded by six pink triangles, and six green and six pink triangles.

Pattern block play! #21CenturyPB #iTeachMath

Sign me up!

On further thinking, it is easier to get a large secondary lead at second base also because of the square root of two.

In estimating 900 calories

Just set up my bambu printer, these look like they could be fun stencils for spray painting to create texture

Is it kinetic at all?

I consistently find “evidence based” to be such a problematic phrase in math education. The “evidence” is often weak, with narrow measured outcomes, and often statistically significant as a whole only because it benefited a narrow population of students. But then it is magically treated as gold.

Chiming in now, I think percentage, decimals, and fractions are particularly easy to introduce with games like baseball, basketball, horseshoes, etc.

#elemMathChat I have to go, but thank you @mrvalencia24.bsky.social for hosting!

Yeah, email me, let’s make it happen!

Let me know if you ever want a zoom tutorial or PD session!

#elemMathChat Of course I think Tile Farm Studio is great for math play for people of all ages. I have literally spent probably 10,000 hours playing in it and still find it fun. We have an open-access version of it here: studio.tilefarm.com

#elemMathChat A3: I feel like one of the most important things in facilitating math play is having relatively simple rules and boundaries. Structured freedom.

Very nice, I feel like this does so much beyond the activity itself. Learning generally that an idea can be converted from one representation to something drastically different translates to so many things.

#elemMathChat A2 I love an activity we do in Tile Farm Studio called “Number Portraits” where students make a creative representation of a number or expression. I think it’s effective because students love being creative, and they end up doing a ton of calculations on the way.

#elemMathChat A1: I think it is possible to learn an overwhelmingly large number of things through play. Maybe you aren’t always playing but play can be an integral part of every learning process. It can be helpful both early on and late in learning anything.

#elemMathChat A0, my name is Alex Romero, from Albuquerque, NM but live in Los Angeles, CA now. I am a teacher and co-founder of Tile Farm. My favorite game to play was probably baseball, scrabble, or hearts.

I’m very into pataphysical etymology

My wife Dr. Jennifer Quinn is more than a mathematician and math museum director. She is an artist! Here is her #LuxPortrait of Einstein, painted with luminous bacteria on a Petri dish. Such talent! #DontFearTheMicrobe #LuxArt @univpugetsound @microbe.tv @ASMicrobiology

Remember that kids know a LOT! #ElemMathChat