Grade 7 Math Book · Math Stories & Mathematicians
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
by Joseph D'Agnese
Young Leonardo of Pisa is always daydreaming about numbers, so people call him a blockhead. He travels, learns new ways to write numbers and discovers the famous sequence that shows up in flowers, pinecones and shells.
Why it's useful
A picture-book biography that brings number patterns and math history to life.
- The Fibonacci sequence. Each number is the sum of the two before it.
- Math in nature. Sunflower seeds and pinecone spirals follow the pattern.
- History of numbers. Fibonacci helped bring our number system to Europe.
Try it in class or at home
- Continue the sequence. Start with 1, 1 and find the next 15 numbers.
- Nature hunt. Count the spirals on a pinecone or sunflower picture.
- Ratio surprise. Divide each number by the one before. What number does it approach?