Eric Carle’s, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is about a lonely caterpillar who hatches from an egg one bright sunny morning. He was famished and began looking for food. On Monday, he ate through one juicy red apple, but was still hungry. He then continued to eat through two green pears, three sweet plums, four delightful strawberries, five tart oranges. By the time Saturday came around he ate through chocolate cake, an ice cream cone, a pickle, swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, a cupcake and a slice of watermelon, and after all that he felt very sick. The next morning he ate through one crunchy, green leaf and felt much better, but he was no longer the small caterpillar he was at the beginning of the week. Instead he was a fat caterpillar that could barely walk on his small feet. He found a shady place to rest and made himself into a cocoon. Two weeks later, he transformed himself into a very beautiful butterfly.
In this specific book, we see that transformations are exemplified, not only because the very hungry caterpillar turned into a butterfly, but in the mathematical sense. Since the caterpillar kept consuming food, his body to expand more and more. In math, we know that as numbers increase, a graph can begin to stretch horizontally and vertically, just like the caterpillar’s belly. If we take the basic function, f(x)=Cx2, c represents how many foods the caterpillar ate, 25. The new formula would be f(x)=25x2 to represent how much the caterpillar stretched. This story can also relate to inputs and outputs. The larger the number that is inputted into an equation, the larger the output will be; thus, the more food that is consumed will ultimately make the caterpillar bigger and bigger. x+25=y.
Literature is an effective way to learn and teach mathematical concepts because it is applied to real life examples. Sometimes concepts need to be taught in different forms in order to be obtained. With books, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, allows us to have a visual to see what happens to a graph when a value is added in order to understand the transformation. Pictures are sometimes easier for children and adults to understand and follow a concept because it is more relatable than a bunch of numbers written down.
paris,
ReplyDeletenice story selection! this is a favorite among many children in the world! i can more easily see relating this narrative to the concept of inputs and outputs that i can see the relation of the quadratic function, although, the formula that you created probably would not work here. another student used this story also, but related it to the general concept of creating mathematical algorithms like food x amount = size (or growth). i understand where you were trying to go with the relation, however, so good job, there, and nice job of explaining the narrative itself.
professor little