Resources:
- To help students see that, humans, made in God’s image, have created a number system that contains its own patterns and beauty.
- While some of the ‘number pattern’ activities are not explicitly ‘Christian’, it is important to discuss the biblical worldview behind number patterns in the daily rhythm of the classroom. The teacher outline, student outline, workbook covers, and more explicit activities provide ideas for the language that you could use to do this. Show students that mathematics contains many beautiful patterns waiting for us to discover and explore!
Times tables: looking for patterns
Our number system is rich with patterns. Discovering patterns:
- Allows us to see the beauty in numbers
- Helps us see shortcuts for manipulating numbers when solving problems
Exploring Prime Number Patterns
What makes a prime number a prime number? The sieve of Eratosthenes can help discover these special numbers, which are the building blocks of all the integers in our number system.
Periodical Cicadas
Discover how prime numbers are woven into creation through the life cycles of periodic cicadas.
Investigating Index Numbers Through Paper Folding
A concrete activity that helps students understand the ‘exploding nature’ of exponential numbers and their inherent patterns.
Discovering Index Number Patterns 1
Finding patterns helps build fluency and understanding with these beautiful and powerful numbers.
Factor code
Discover the fundamental building blocks behind every integer in our number system by exploring prime factors.
Worksheet cover pages
Insert these cover pages on the front and back of integer and number pattern workbooks to remind students of the purpose of their learning!
Beauty in mathematics can come from the surprise of the unexpected and the depth of the relationship between ideas. Elegance and the alternation between tension and relief, confusion and illumination. Through contrasting complexity and simplicity.
Explored by Bradley & Howell, 2011, p. 162