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		Quilting Across the Curriculum In conjunction with the Home Economics, Art, English, Social Studies, Business and Science departments, the Math Department participates in the annual quilt project. Each student selected a classic quilt pattern. A blueprint of the quilt block was created using the principles of similarity: corresponding angles congruent and corresponding sides proportional. Students then constructed a 20 cm square block and with symmetry in mind, created this lovely quilt

Fibonacci Quilts Leonardo da Pisa (1175-1250) developed a sequence of numbers: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21… that described the hypothetical birth pattern of rabbits. This sequence of numbers has become known as the Fibonacci Sequence (son of Bonacci) The pattern for the sequence is additive, each successive term is the sum of the two previous terms. In the centuries since Fibonacci generated the sequence, scientist, mathematicians and economists have found many other connections to this pattern. We have divided a grid into four quadrants. Each quadrant is divided into columns that have widths equal to the Fibonacci numbers.

		Computer Programming Students use simulation programs, such as Alice from Carnegie Mellon University, in order to learn programming concepts such as loops, decision making with if statements, and control statements. In this exercise, students programmed the Penguin choir to sing.

Like Alice, Karel J. Robot is another computer simulator which uses a Java-like programming language. In this simulation, students manueuver the robot, Karel, through a two-dimensional world of mazes. Karel lives in a two dimensional world made of Streets which run vertically and Avenues which run horizontally. Students write programs which tell Karel whether to turn left, move forward, pick up or put down a beeper, and turn off in order to navigate the maze.. In order to direct Karel to turn right, students must right their own command called “turnright.” In this program, the student created her own right turn command, as well as using the built-in commands, to write a a set of instructions to get Karel from the starting point at Street 0 and Avenue 0 to the finish line at Street 1 and Avenue 9.

		To write their own Java programs, students in both the Computer Programming class and the Advanced Placement Computer Science class use a Java editor called BlueJ. They learn how to import packages as well as how to compile and debug Java syntax errors. In the above program, students created their own simulation of a psychiatrist named Eliza. Eliza, written in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum, parodied a Rogerian therapist. In their versions of Eliza, computer programming students design their own version of theraputic responses to user typed emotive words.

Problem Solving
Students used prediction about the 2009 Super Bowl to illustrate their understanding of the probability of 2 events occurring.
Problem Solving
In Problem Solving students created problems in which working backwards was the best strategy.