Fractals and Fibonacci



Fractals and Fibonacci

In just a short exploration of non-linear patterns I was blown away by the real life application of what seems like very random events.





Questions to Ponder:

1. Were there ideas or concepts you were not familiar with? What were they?

I knew fractals to be patterns and the Fibonacci sequence to be a pattern of adding the last two numbers, but would have had difficulty describing them more than that. I certainly didn’t realize the surprising occurrence that each have outside of math class.

2. What images did you find particularly striking?

I was particularly amazed at the cross between cauliflower and broccoli (picture at top middle). The patterns that emerged were really quite amazing.

3. Can you identify any manifestations of nonlinear patterns within your home or your workplace? What are they?

There are probably many more examples than I found, but I took notice of the grains in the wood around our house including our floors and furniture. There were also nonlinear patterns in our curtains and in a Tiffany style lamp that we have. I’m sure if I looked harder I would find even more.

4. How can you adapt this webquest activity for your classroom?

I’m not sure that the activity needs to be adapted too much to work in my classroom. Some of the concepts are a little advanced, but I could at least have the kids examining and comparing linear and nonlinear patters. I like the idea of keeping it an inductive study, where the kids do much of the researching and exploring themselves. From there I would have the kids look for examples of these patterns at school, outside and at home.

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