Hello! Nathan and Alex here again for our second blog post!
As someone probably once said, “Life is like a labyrinth. You never know where it’s going to take you. Sometimes you feel like you’re coming to an endpoint only to realize you really are just beginning the journey.” “But what does this have to do with a garden?”, you might be asking yourself. Well hold on, because the answer, as always, is MATH!
This morning in the garden, we had two fun and exciting math workshops led by PhD student Erica Huang and our very own Susan Gerofsky. Erica led us through “Coding unplugged” where we explored the various ways in which computational thinking can be taught in a garden. Our first activity in the workshop was an introduction to binary code through the use of sticks and rocks where the sticks represented a 1, and the rocks represented a 0. We played a game where we made a 5x5 array of sticks and rocks, and Erica added on an extra row and column based on something we weren’t told at the start. We then replaced one of the objects in the array and Erica ‘magically’ figured out which object it was! She explained how her column and row was based on making the number of rocks/sticks even. For example, if the number of rocks in a column was odd, she would add a rock to make the number of rocks even in that column. It was so interesting to see how computers use this same method to check for errors in bytes of code.
Our second activity with Erica was a ‘Human Robot’ activity. We got into groups of three and two group members (the coders) hid an object somewhere while the third member (the robot) closed their eyes. The coders then had to give the robot instructions on how to find the treasure. It was a great experience to see how directions can be interpreted differently and how as coders, we need to understand how our computers interpret the information we give them. We’ll admit, we were struggling at first to think of some ways that we could do a coding workshop in a garden without wifi or computers. However, in doing this workshop, we experienced that computational thinking and coding is applicable in myriad ways across a variety of subjects and fields.
After saying goodbye to Erica, we had a labyrinth workshop led by Susan. We learned about the history of labyrinths and saw how a basic cross shape was used to design a beautiful labyrinth. We practiced first on paper and experimented with different starting designs to see what types of labyrinths they would create. Specifically, we tried to determine how we could figure out the number of courses in the labyrinth based on the number of points we drew to start (we think that the number of courses is equal to the number of points divided by two, and then we subtract two from that).
Our major takeaway from this morning is that math is everywhere and in everything; it isn’t just something they do on paper trying to get 100% on a test. Susan also made a great point that the skills and activities we did today are linked to the core competency of critical and creative thinking, which are integral to the ways in which we educate in the 21st century.
This afternoon we were in the garden for a work party with Chris! The sun was shining and the sky was blue making it a super nice day to be in the garden. We had a variety of tasks to complete today. Many of us worked on our favourite task, WEEDING! The potato plot and garlic plot needed to be weeded. Then they were covered in compost and given a good watering. The rest of the group worked on trimming the tomato plants and finally planting them. There were 21 plants in total and 17 of them were planted today. They’re looking amazing and we’re planning to plant the others tomorrow.
We’d also like to thank Amélia for bringing her dog Leo today!
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