Maria, I'm very happy that you posted our activities-to-date. This is how I realized that I missed the webinar for week three, and it was a good one. I wish I had been online for it. Many questions were posed and everyone really thought out their answers. Is mathematics from nature or are we using mathematics and applying it to nature? This was the question that Laura brought up, It reminded me of "Who came first the chicken or the egg?" I believe that nature (God, if you believe as I do) has invented the original mathematics, and we as humans are still trying to explore it, and put it into terms we can deal with on a human level. Mathematical concepts are so vast, as were some of those questions posed by 6-9 year-olds..."How big is the universe?" "What was the first butterfly in the world, and how big was it?" "When did the world begin?" These are some beautiful questions. At what point do humans stop asking these questions. By the time we reach adulthood very few even care about such things anymore...but children still do. I'm sure our students will have many questions we can't even begin to answer. Last semester I interviewed a biology teacher, and when I asked about her worst experience as a teacher, she explained that when she first sarted out she was terribly afraid that a student would ask her a question she didn't know the answer to. She also said that she had to learn (exactly as Maria stated) that she could get back to them with the answer. I think in subjects like math and science this is very often a necessary response. We are human and don't know al the answers and we never will. I also liked Laura's idea of simplifying answers so that children will understand. I have done this with my own, and it works quite well. I thought I heard Maria ask about art/ math and why we don't usually see math and art combined, but maybe I misunderstood her. At some points the recording wasn't too clear, so I will answer the question anyway. I think the reason may be that activities such as drawing and painting were taught in the past as a right-brain, free-flowing activity between the eye and the hand, focusing on aspects such as light and dark, line-quality, and spatial relationships but always very intuitive. This sort of art would have little need for elements of math, however looking at the art objects pictured on "The Bridges Conference" page, I really can see art and math fusing together to form some beautiful creations. Great online meeting!
