Sunday, March 28, 2010

We're part of all this

Things are a bit blurry today. Some things we cannot understand nor control.

This helps.


















I stumbled on this at dy/dan via Tuttle SVC.
Posted by at

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Beautiful. Thank you for finding this and sharing it.

March 28, 2010 at 11:39 AM
nashworld said...

Yeah.

There's a slick little set of math behind all that we do.

As insane as I think our actions as biological entities are... as random and chaotic (common definition) as so many things in life seem to be... as *intellectually* designed as some folks would like us to believe our world really is... there really does seem to be an amazingly-complex set of algorithms for it all.

In reality, true chaos is more orderly than most things I see on a daily basis. We swim in patterns we do not recognize.

And yet- on one level, it is as simple as a nautilus building away... getting larger... eating... living... existing.

This video is really rather expertly done in my opinion. I found myself wanting to slow it down at first, and yet it ended up with what I saw as near-perfect timing.

It takes me back to my first year as a teacher in 1992. I was a teacher of two courses: 7th grade Life Science and Odyssey. (Odyssey was the name of our Middle School Gifted Program which included science research as 1/5 of a "curriculum" including: 2/5 literature, 1/5 math and 1/5 "problem-solving.") The reason 2/5 was Lit. was due to the simple fact that this is the course they were pulled from for *gifted* ed. Problem solving equated to being involved in the "Future Problem Solving" program/contest. Predictably enough, most folks assumed (pre-standards of course) that I naturally spent far more than 1/5 on science research due to my "background."

In reality, they had no IDEA the richness of work we did while reading, analyzing, interpreting, and creating literature. If we had the luxury of digital publication at that time, I'd provide links and blow minds compared to 75% of the crap that gets tossed around today as exemplary. I say that not as someone touting his or her own value in the system, but instead as someone who worked in the far less standardized system of nearly 20 years ago. Was it perfect for all kids? It certainly was not. However, for the kids in my care it was. We were not held down by incessant mandates. They had a young, fiery and passionate teacher who didn't sleep much.

What did I skimp on? Math. I had a terrible go at it at one point. After being a lucky part of the "accelerated kid" train for several years when it was freshly en vogue... I fell into some super hard times with higher math. If you mine my blog for math you'll get the goods. I whine. I'll be ok.

The bottom line today: I adore math. I bow to the beauty of it. I see it when I read. I see it through the lens of my camera. I see it when my students wield it with reckless and skillful abandon. It is a rare gem or blossom to me in a sea of gray. I am fascinated with the rhythmic nature of our world. This can only be explained with math... or a touch.

The touch I figured out long ago... the math, I'm just now warming up to.

Sure, 18 years ago I guided students through a surface exploration of Fibonacci... of Escher. But only now could I truly hope to convey the passion I have for the mathematical order of this place in which we live.

If you don't love this stuff... you aren't paying attention. (and you aren't likely reading this blog, and so I don't mind rambling on and on.)


Sean.

March 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)