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Utah math students create mosaics using Rubik's Cubes

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SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Students at a Utah middle school spent their last day solving Rubik’s Cubes to make some pretty stunning mosaics.

The 7th and 8th grade math students at Elk Ridge Middle School in South Jordan used their math skills and some teamwork to create the artwork.

The students started off with pieces of paper on plastic lunch trays. They were small parts of a bigger picture.

The students didn’t know what they were making. They just had to focus on which color went where to get to the final product.

“Last week, we taught all the students in 7th and 8th grade how to solve a Rubik’s Cube,” said Jonathan Lawes, math teacher. “We take some of the principles that they learned while they were solving, the whole thing. And then we say, ‘hey, you just need to solve one face.’ We focus on, you know, making the cross and then we make the edge pieces. And you see kids start to get it. Once kids get the program and everything and they understand what they need to do, they just dive in.”

The students ended up revealing one of the big pictures in only 15 minutes and it was someone well known in the state and to NBA fans. In all, the kids used 420 Rubik’s Cubes to make an impressive mosaic of Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell.

The students also made mosaics of Jazz player Rudy Gobert and every administrator at the middle school.

The teachers say they hope to get more Rubik’s Cubes to make even bigger mosaics in the future.