Finally, I outlined the head of the sunflower with my finger and asked them to name this measurement! The answer that was most often offered as it is the perimeter. And that is “why” I am spending the time to introduce this number concept to the garden club students!Īs I showed the students the huge sunflower heads from our garden, I asked them to think about the relationship between the height of these plants (I asked for guesses here) and the size of the heads (most were about 12 -17 inches in diameter). Wondering “why” is exactly our garden club theme this year. Of course, that is because I always want to know the reason “why”. Wondrous, in fact! I have long been attracted to the beauty I find in my garden, but knowing there might be some rhyme and reason behind that beauty makes it all the more attractive to me. There are also some great websites and videos that apply this concept in a visual sense. It appears in many more places than those mentioned above. So, I’d like to leave the students with the challenge of looking for the Fibonacci sequence in nature. They are right in front of you! A sixth grader I know says, “Everything is math and math is everything!” Right now, I can’t find an argument for this!

This student remembered the sequencing from an advanced biology class, not a math class! Do you see the overlap here? Mathematics is an integral part of science and science is an integral part of math! You just need to be curious enough to look for the connections. It was interesting to note that none of the students in the garden club this year had heard of the Fibonacci Sequence before! The high school volunteers had heard of it but only one knew how the sequence was generated or what it applied to. Thirdly, is that it makes the subject of math more beautiful! And lastly, for our group, it provides some enrichment for those students who are looking to stretch their knowledge base. So, why am I bothering to show the students this? For one reason, it is just cool to be able to recognize how this pattern repeats itself over and over on living things! The second reason is that it makes the students think about math and patterns found in everyday life.

Youtube fibonacci sequence in nature