For Teachers
Math Standards
Fibonacci’s story is a remarkably rich ground for exploring math standards and other curriculum areas. His story allows teachers to explore such topics as:
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• What is a number?
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• Hindu-Arabic numerals versus Roman numerals
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• The Value of Place Value
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• Egyptian numerals
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• Using an Abacus
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• Travel distances (Pisa to Bugia and other sites in the Mediterranean)
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• Number patterns
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• Fibonacci numbers in Nature
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• Fibonacci spirals
Moreover, the book allows you to make cross-curricular tie-ins to art, music, science and history.
Classroom Visits
I offer classroom visits that can be conducted in one of two different ways.
Virtual classroom visits: If your computer is equipped with a camera and microphone, we can also do an hour-long Skype visit that allows students to see me and talk to me, and vice versa. Cost: I don’t charge for these visits, but I ask that your class make a tax-deductible donation to the Fibonacci Giving Project. You can donate any amount you wish, as long as it is a Fibonacci number. (I’d love it it you gave $144, but I’d be happy with $21, $5, $3 or even $1!) Find out more about the terms of the project on the Donate page.
Conventional classroom visits: I travel to your school and conduct one, two, three, or a maximum of four sessions per day, which can include a hands-on workshop. Depending on your preference, I can spend the lunch period with students or faculty. (I enjoy hanging out with students, but also relish catching up on trends in education with the grown-ups.) Cost: Speaker’s fee ($800) plus travel expenses.
For more information on visits, fees and other details, download this handout: DAgnese School Visit Handout.pdf.
To facilitate book purchases prior to a school visit, use this parental book order form: DAgnese BOOK_ORDER_FORM.doc
Download a free handout for Teachers, Parents & Librarians here: Free Handout for Teachers Parents Librarians.pdf
Download a Fibonacci Scavenger Hunt here: Fibonacci Scavenger Hunt.pdf
For a free copy of my notes from the 2010 NCTM session presented in San Diego, write me via the contact page.
Want more Fibonacci materials for the classroom? Please look at Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature, a new photography-based children’s book by Sarah Campbell. It offers beautiful, real-life images of the pattern as it exists in nature.
Conferences Joe has attended:
NCTM Annl 1990-1997
AASL Charlotte 2009
NCTM Annl 2010 San Diego
ALA Annl 2010 DC
Other books by Joe:
(Free sample: ComBook.pdf)
REVIEWS OF BLOCKHEAD
"D’Agnese’s introduction to medieval Europe’s greatest mathematician offers both a coherent biographical account—spun, with some invented details, from very sketchy historical records—and the clearest explanation to date for younger readers of the numerical sequence that is found throughout nature and still bears his name."
—Booklist
* “The lively text includes touches of humor... O’Brien’s signature illustrations textured with thin lines re-create a medieval setting... [T]he book will be a boon to math teachers, homeschoolers and others piqued by the title.”
—Kirkus Reviews,
starred review
“This lighthearted introducton to Fibonacci’s ideas will inspire young math lovers and perhaps point them toward more scholarly explorations.”
—School Library Journal
“Math lover or not, readers should succumb to the charms of this highly entertaining biography of medieval mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci... D’Agnese’s colloquial tone lures readers into the story and even invites them to ferret out patterns in the illustrations. Atop dappled backgrounds, O’Brien’s delicate swirls and hatch marks echo the mathematical pattern—another graceful connection between math and the real world in which children live.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[An] engaging, kid-friendly look at Fibonacci and his eponymous numerical sequence... The book has some clever tongue-in-check humor, and D’Agnese does a favor by clearly explaining Fibonacci’s breeding rabbits scenario... Throughout the book, O’Brien’s illustrations are textured with swirls and spirals—a whimsical homage to the man who discovered, as he believed, ‘the numbers Mother Nature uses to order the universe.’”
—Horn Book
