[The following is the 1st email lesson in a 5-part series that we would like to send you if you sign up for our newsletter. The newsletter is mostly a way to share free useful learning resources, but we will occasionally include links to affordable live online classes for kids.]
Doodle Games, Recreational Math, Φ Phi, the Beauty of the Golden Spiral, & other Patterns in Nature
Do you love to draw but hate math? Or love math but fail to see the value of art? Vi Hart is a self-declared mathamusician who often starts with fun distracting doodle games that inadvertently turn into doing real math.
Vi Hart’s 3-part series on the Fibonacci sequence, and how this creates the golden spiral found at Φ Phi angles in nature, is a truly mind blowing masterpiece of edutainment. Her combination of high speed narration and sped up time lapse illustrations make you feel like you’re downloading it directly into your brain like a scene from the Matrix.
Math can be fun?
Don’t just take my word for it. Even John Green, the author of beloved books such as The Fault in Our Stars says so, “Watch a Vi Hart video and your life will be changed. You may think you hate math, but you don’t hate math—you hate the way you’ve been taught math.”
Parable of the Polygon
This is a relatively less-well known experiment, but I found the Parable of the Polygon extremely useful, engaging, and interactive. So much so, that I infrequently find myself visiting from time to time to show people this important concept of how organisms with preferences naturally segregate themselves—an important statistical model that can help objectively explain some of the sensitive issues around racism. It’s lovely to see how programming, a little fun creativity, and mathematics can help bring insight to such a controversial topic.
Step by Step Doodle Games
The speed at which Vi Hart explains and illustrates her videos makes for an enlightening, although passive learning experience. If you would like to slow down and turn this into an engaging active lesson, feel free to follow our Step by Step walk through on some of the doodle games she rushes through.
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