Finding Fibonacci Numbers in Nature

To begin our enquiry into the Fibonacci numbers (they are amazing!), we had begun by thinking about these two questions:


What connections exist between maths and nature?

Does nature use mathematics OR do people see mathematics in nature?

For our second question, we created own theories, placed them along an imaginary line to show where our opinion lay and we discussed our theories and reasons.

See previous enquiry link


To investigate, we had brought in some selected fruit, vegetables, shells, pinecones and flowers:

In groups we needed to look carefully at the nature items we had and tried to see if they had a Fibonacci number or Fibonacci spiral connection.

We were like detectives.....

  

There was a lot of excitement each time a group found a Fibonacci connection.

Each time we discovered one, we sketched the item and gave a brief description of what we observed.  Groups collated their discoveries and as a whole class, we shared what we had found:

After sharing, we wrote a brief reflection which we will expand upon more next week when we continue our investigation.

Some reflection samples:

 

We then looked at our original theories about whether we think nature uses maths or is it that people simply see maths in nature

Has our thinking changed?

Most of us felt our position on this hadn't changed, but a few of us felt it had and they shared with us their reasons why.

We added a few more questions to our wonder wall to explore such as:

° Is there a scientific reason why we find Fibonacci numbers so much in nature?

° What are other objects in nature do we find Fibonacci numbers /spirals?

° Are there more things in nature with or without a Fibonacci number / spiral connection?

These are some great investigations to help us continue enquiring deeper into our unit......