Math Trek and Fib Poems

Yesterday was the last session of this academic year's version of the Math Treks, sponsored in the Triangle NC area by Natural Math.  The idea behind the Math Treks is to "grow math eyes" by trying to find math concepts, such as fractals and tessellations and golden ratios and such, in nature, or at least among the landscapes in which we live.  These concepts are captured in photography and shared via Flikr, and help students connect abstract math concepts with the concrete reality in which they live.  It's a really great program, and I'm so grateful that we were able to participate.

Since yesterday's session was the last one, it was a culmination of many of the treks that came before.  Find all of the items on the list, and you were designated as a "Super Treker."  We were looking for these items at the Arboretum at NC State, which was a rich place for both photography and natural math (and which I've written about before in this post).  Maria D. of Natural Math and I ended up working together, and eventually found all the items, winning ourselves the title of "Super Trekers."

One of the things we had to do was write a Fibonacci Poem, also called a Fib (which I've explained before in this post), which has syllables in the Fibonacci sequence.  So I wrote this Fib Poem:

Math
Trek
Super
Edition.
Find Nineteen Items.
Then You Are a Super Math Geek!

So here I am--a designated Super Math Geek!  Who would have thought it (especially given that Math is not my strongest discipline)?

My son did his own quest with other students of his age, so I didn't see his items until everything was over. However, as we were walking out, he did show me this thing that he had created:

Start of my son's Fib poem

Not only was it a public declaration (at the very entrance of the Arboretum), but it was the opening syllables of his Fib poem.  Here is his Fib:

My
Mom
Is The
Best Mother
In the Universe.
I Think that She Is Really Great!

So we all had a great day playing with math and photography on a beautiful day in a gorgeous setting, with a little bit of sadness mixed in because we were ending something that we've really enjoyed.  But I think I was probably the happiest mom leaving, thanks to the poetic tribute from my son.