Challenge: Blinded me with Science
FIONA is 12 years old. She is reciting a report in a math class.
FIONA
People often think that because math has a right answer it is rigid, strict. It is a brick wall where the humanities are nature. In reality, math is found throughout the natural world and it’s our minds in trying to understand and utilize it that it appears rigid. The Fibonacci Sequence, for example, would seem to be a fascinating example of a man-made construct. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55… it goes up by the sum of the two previous numbers. But when you look closer at shells and pinecones and flowers, and even bees we can see that nature is all too aware of the Fibonacci Sequence and has probably been providing examples long before Fibonacci was born.
Math isn’t always the easiest to understand and it is sometimes frustrating when you think you’ve followed all the right steps and get the wrong answer, but then, having the steps written out for you can help because you can figure out where you went wrong, or if you can’t, someone that knows more than you can see how you got the answer you did and help you get to the correct answer. I think if we all thought of math as more of a mystery that needed solving or a puzzle you need to piece together, it would be less frustrating to work on and more rewarding when we got the right answer.