The 4th Grade Garden Club learned of an example of how math appears in nature. Students learned about the Fibonacci number sequence calculating sums starting with 0 and 1 and adding the two numbers that came before. (They also guessed correctly that Fibonacci, a middle ages mathematician, was from Italy.) 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89. 144 0+1 = 1 1+1 = 2 1+2 = 3 2+3 = 5 3+5 = 8 5+8 + 13 8+13 = 21 13+21= 34 21+34 = 55 34+55 = 89 55+89 = 144 They then took a closer look at the center of sunflowers and noticed two curve patterns - one going one direction and another going a different direction. They practiced counting the two sets of curves and found the numbers of curves were different for each direction. They also found that the amount of curves were one of the Fibonacci numbers. Students learned that the sunflower doesn't just pop up seeds any old way. A group of students pretended to be seeds starting in the middle of a sunflower. First they tried placing themselves as seeds without turning (0o) and found they (the seeds) made a straight line. They then tried turning 90o, or a quarter turn, and found they formed a + (plus) pattern. They learned that the sunflower seeds come up at 137.508°. One degree either way would form a completely different pattern. We encourage everyone to watch the wonderful video below on the Fibonacci number sequence, golden spirals and other interesting shapes. http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/videos/inspirationalnumbers.html