When I was at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, I saw many interesting cultural objects such as hand carved canoes, and totem poles as well as a Shiva statue from my native India. The totem poles reminded me of wood and stone temple carvings back in India.
The totem poles also gave me ideas for math puzzles which I could give my students. Such as calculating the height of a totem pole or what is the angle of depression or any other trigonometry or geometry?
Question: There is a pole which is 15 feet in height, and it has an eagle perched on top of the pole. The eagle is looking at a snake that is approaching the totem pole to steal her eggs, the snake is at a distance that is 3 times the height of the totem pole. The eagle is perched to swoop down upon the snake. If the eagle swoops down to catch the snake at the same time that the snake moves towards the hole, and both move the same distance, where will they meet?
You can find mathematics in nature and man made objects in the world around us, ancient cultures discovered mathematics and used various aspects in different ways. Part of the fun in visiting museums is finding common links between cultures and disciplines, such as the pots and ladles, bows and arrows, grinding stones.