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Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts

Back to School Lesson Plans Fibonacci Number Patterns in Nature

Looking for back to school lesson plans that pop? How about a number pattern walk? Here are some materials to guide you. One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is demonstrating principles in action--not because concepts don't occur outside the printed page. The problem is that educators tend to be textbook-bound. "Growing Patterns," by Sarah C. Campbell, makes the concept of Fibonacci numbers visual, even hands-on for students. For adults, too. Campbell's book was featured on Fox's show "Touch , " in which a non-verbal, emotionally impaired boy, Jake, connects to his father using Fibonacci patterns.
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching is demonstrating principles in action--not because concepts don't occur outside the printed page. The problem is that educators tend to be textbook-bound. "Growing Patterns," by Sarah C. Campbell, makes the concept of Fibonacci numbers visual, even hands-on for students. For adults, too. Campbell's book was featured on Fox's show "Touch" in which a non-verbal, emotionally impaired boy, Jake, connects to his father using Fibonacci patterns.

Shows like "Touch" are important in helping non-handicapped people understand the world of handicapped people, from the inside out. But it goes far beyond this. Instead of a "normal" person helping an "impaired" person, we learn that everyone has gifts. They're just not be as readily visible. Each person can reach out if one understands the language he speaks. In "Touch," Jake who is deemed "disabled," uses the Fibonacci sequence to express his vision of the world. He communicates using the language of pattern and touch.

The Fibonacci sequence, in which the two preceding numbers are added together to form the next number, is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21, and so on. The principle was named for the mathematician Leonardo of Pisa who first demonstrated the it. Fibonacci numbers occur in nature as a spiral pattern. Campbell's book shows the phenomenon in pine cones, pineapples, flowers, nautilus seashells, galaxies and other natural objects.

Fibonacci numbers are closely related to the algebraic "golden ratio" (referred to by the Greek letter phi or "golden number") and "golden string" described by Euclid and Pythagoras. These concepts are used in diverse applications from architecture to market analyses. Shown numerically, the concepts may be arcane and confusing. Observed in nature, they are easily grasped. As in Jake's enigmatic world, nature often makes the mysterious clear.

As a teacher, I'm always looking for object lessons that make abstract concepts approachable, especially in nature. I once designed a unit on how symmetry appears in orchids. Several children's authors base their books on hands-on applications. Tana Hoban's picture books show how patterns occur around us. Jerry Pallotta uses nature patterns to teach math. Campbell's book is another excellent resource.

As a special education teacher, I'm also looking for ways to help special needs kids connect with their world and express themselves. Fox "Touch" is an excellent vehicle to do that.  Here are other free printable lesson plans using Fibonacci number patterns

Free Printable Business Money Math, Personal Finance, Consumer Economics Math Lesson Plans

Teachers, parents and homeschool families are you looking for hands-on, real-life lesson plans for children? Money math makes great applications for real-world math lessons. Money math lessons teach core math skills. Here are free printable money math worksheets and lesson plans on personal finance, banking and shopping. Use for elementary through high school in personal finance, economics and consumer math classes. Money math skills are practical and pragmatic in that they improve high stakes testing scores as well. Here are some of the many benefits of instruction in consumer math:
Coin counting teaches computation, adding and multiplying skills and making change teaches subtraction skills. Calculating sales discounts teaches fractions, decimals and percents. Teaching economics theories of profit and loss explains integers while personal finance concepts of income and expenses teaches algebra formulas. Use free printable money math worksheets to practice adding in columns, place value, base 10 math, metrics, subtraction and dividing with decimals, long division and basic fractions, decimals and percents. Consumer math helps students learn to read line grapsh, pie charts and bar graphs.
Money Instructor has free printable money math worksheets on personal finance and consumer math skills. Teaching money math is a one-hand-washes-the-other relationship. Students practice basic math skills while learning life skills such as budgeting, buying on sale, using discounts and coupons, balancing a checking account, saving money, investing, calculating credit and interest rates and so many other critical money math skills. Kids.gov has free printable money math worksheets, lesson plans, games and activities on all areas of money math. Jumpstart has free printable money math worksheets, games and activities for teaching personal finance and consumer math to younger children. Check Enchanted Learning for loads more money math worksheets and printables.