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Digital Schoolhouse
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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.
Beautiful Numbers
This lesson or enrichment activity investigates recursive algorithms using Fibonacci series.
It begins with an engaging maths magic trick ‘how to fake a super brain’ that uses a special property of Fibonacci numbers, and proceeds to look at the Golden Ratio in nature and its ‘beautiful’ properties.
Flowcharts are used to plan and improve algorithms for calculating the numbers in Fibonacci sequences. Some key vocabulary is introduced that relates to the algorithms to be developed, such as constant, variable, loop and selection.
Scratch is then used to create programs with loops and selection that calculate the first few numbers. As an extension activity recursion is also introduced as a way to improve the efficiency of algorithms.
The resource contains a teaching guide and presentation, as well as example Scratch files (for the ‘offline’ version of Scratch) and templates for looking at the Golden Ratio.
The stories ‘The Cat in the Hat Comes Back’ by Dr Seuss and ‘Too Many Bears’ by Allan Ahlberg and Andre Amstutz can be used as metaphors for those learning about recursion.
Digital School House is associated and fully supported by Ukie
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Downloads
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Beautiful Numbers 4.42 MB
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Beautiful Numbers Teaching Guide 507.13 KB
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How to fake a super brain 139.28 KB
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SB Files 243.39 KB
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Templates 10.78 KB
Show downloads
-
Beautiful Numbers 4.42 MB -
Beautiful Numbers Teaching Guide 507.13 KB -
How to fake a super brain 139.28 KB
-
SB Files 243.39 KB -
Templates 10.78 KB
Download all files as a .zip4.24 MB
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