An Introduction to the Beauty of the Fibonacci Sequence

Recently we’ve been talking a lot about cross-curricular projects and classes: math + science, English + history, religion + history, etc.  What about math and religion?  Where is the intersection?

Last year, a colleague shared a video with me called “The Fingerprint of God”.  In the video the narrator shows many examples of the Fibonacci Sequence (and spiral) in nature, including spirals in nautilus shells matching the spiral curve of a wave matching the spiral curve of our galaxy, and comments that this spiral is like a fingerprint of a common creator.  It blew my mind when I first watched it.  God does math?  Math came from God?  How does this all work?

The Fingerprint of God Video

I desperately wanted my students to have that same enlightening moment so I tried to design a project/activity that would allow them to have that experience.  I asked Adam Chaffey to help me and together we planned our Fingerprint of God activity which spanned the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving break.  The girls were definitely confused when I told them we would be doing a religion + math hybrid activity, but getting to “break the silos” and show them that math and religion can work together was exciting.  On the first day, I showed the girls the Fibonacci Sequence (my students had already “discovered” this earlier in the year) and some examples of the sequence and spiral in nature before sending them out to find examples of their own.  On the second day, Adam showed the Fingerprint of God video and we discussed how seeing this “fingerprint” affected our faith.  Finally, the students were tasked to create a song/video tying together all that we had talked about over the last two days.  (I’ve attached a couple below)

Things I have to figure out how to improve for next time: 

1. Make it a more discovery-based project instead of a discussion-based project.  I think I was so excited about sharing this with the students that I front-loaded this activity too much.  The discussions were good, but it felt anti-climatic.  There didn’t seem to be any “ah-ha!” moments.  The students did everything we asked of them, but didn’t really figure anything out on their own.  How can I guide them without giving them too much?
2. Figure out how to collaborate with another class/teacher more smoothly.  I know this was made more difficult by the fact that I have the same group of students 1st and 2nd period, but the logistics of collaborating with a two religion classes was a real challenge.  Adam and I both had girls that were in both of our classes in different periods and therefore ended up hearing the same information and doing the same activity multiple times–not ideal.

…any ideas?

Student Submissions: