In: Advanced Math
This 27-minute movie was narrated by Paul Frees
Donald's goes on an adventure in which it is explained how mathematics can be useful in real life. Through this journey it is shown how numbers are more than graphs and charts, they are geometry, music and magical living things.
Movie spends much of its time showing the power of the golden ratio, first by demonstrating how it appears in a pentagram; not just once, but many times over. There is even a shape based on this beautiful proportion, and it is called the golden rectangle. But the golden ratio does not only turn up in abstract shapes—you can also find it in buildings, paintings, shells, trees, ferns and in us, too
Donald himself doesn’t fit the golden proportion, though he does manage to get “all pent up in a pentagon”! Speaking of which, nature has plenty of pentagons on offer, too: the petunia, the star jasmine and the starfish are only a few such specimens. There are thousands more examples out there.
It’s all too easy to forget that mathematics also crops up in many kinds of games. If you spent your summer watching the Euros or the Olympics, then you have seen many different geometrical areas, but probably took them for granted! For example, basketball is chock full of circles, spheres and rectangles; baseball is played on a diamond; even chess and hopscotch are games of squares. The narrator also presents a trick behind the game of billiards which relies on…you guessed it—maths!
there is my favourite part of the entire movie: the mind games. Before starting, it is hilarious to see how cluttered Donald’s mind is but, once it’s cleared, he goes on a roll! He starts out with just a circle and a triangle. Donald discovers numerous inventions including magnifying glasses, wheels, propellers, gears, springs, telephones, pistons and many more
Yes, mathematics plays an important part in scientific discoveries and technological advances. Plenty of these doors have already opened, but there are still many more that remain locked.
From this movie one can lean many leassons
(1) Open your mind beyond nerd labels and stereotypes. Anyone can understand and embrace math. Absorb and use the proper vocabulary. Just think straight, which requires confidence, skill, and acceptance.
(2) Maths is everywhere :
As our protagonist waterfowl exasperates, you find math in the “darndest of places” and in more than numbers and equations. He ain’t wrong and the documentary short covers a choice array of those occurrences. Art, music, nature, games, all carry the same laws and rules of math, no matter their setting. with the same rules and measures no matter the setting. More than numbers and equations too.
(3)Teaching and understanding maths is all about good examples :
Take it from this teacher turning back the curtain on how to approach mathematical concepts to the learners in your charge. It’s all about the concrete-representational-abstract instructional approach. Those real-life connections from Lesson #2, turn into teachable moments. Once that attention is grabbed, you work further drawn-out and hands-on examples and challenges. If a cartoon can achieve that, so can you with the right examples and approach.