“Mathematics is a human activity, a social phenomenon, a set of methods used to help illuminate the world and it’s part of our culture”.
Discusses the divine proportion (phi) which is app 1.6 and appears in may places throughout nature.
Also discusses the fibonacci sequence which also appears in nature in seed spirals and other things.
Mathematicians might be inclined to describe mathematics as the study of patterns.
In a UK study of workplaces, the most frequently required skill as estimating numbers.
An important part of real, living mathematics is the posing of problems.
Children liked working on math-related problems (Design a firestation with a firefighters pole) found the problems enjoyable and they learned a lot from them. Their work and success in doing that work made them feel proud.
The ultimate point of this chapter is that you need to give children the opportunity to engage in solving interesting problems that require mathematics to solve rather than drilling them on computational methods without the accompanying compelling application.