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Patterns

© Irene Taylor

I have been having a problem with my computer for several months now. When I boot up, if the available resources aren't at 80%, I find that I can't connect to the Internet or get my email.

Now wait - you haven't stumbled onto an article about fixing a computer glitch. This dilemma eventually got me looking for a pattern and seeing what I needed to do in order to use my computer. For a while I was curious as to why the boot up process sometimes caused the error and sometimes didn't. But it took me a long while to notice that it only worked correctly when the resources were at 80%. Not 83%, not 81%, which sometimes happened, but 80%. Now, I don't know WHAT is going on to cause these fluctuations, but eventually catching on to the pattern did allow me to know when the problem was going to crop up and I could just restart the computer and get the "magic" number.

Patterns exist all around us. Getting kids to see them is a great way to work on that logic thinking that we are always striving to instill. Here are a few that you might want to try:

Some Easy Number Patterns

All of the times tables use patterns, but there are some other easy ones you can use or make up to get your students to start to look for the pattern. Here are a few:

2, 4, 6, 8, 10 - what's the pattern? (Counting by 2's or the 2 times table)

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 64 - what's the pattern? (Doubling each number)

1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, 22 - what's the pattern? (Adding one more each time: 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 4+3=7, 7+4=11)

You can think up others - any pattern can do as long as it is consistent and the students can figure it out.

Fibonacci Numbers

Way back in the 12th century, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered an interesting sequence of numbers. The sequence begins like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...can you see the pattern? The Fibonacci sequence results from adding the previous two numbers to get the next number, like this:
1+1=2
1+2=3
2+3=5
3+5=8
5+8=13
8+13=21 and so on

Challenge your students to find the largest Fibonacci number they can. A calculator is a good tool to use as the numbers get larger. (Actually, largest one that mathematicians have found is hundreds of digits long - and the possibilities are infinite.)