A while ago, while looking for an interesting way to teach students about fractals, I came across this amazing video.
It was made by the very talented Vi Hart, a 'recreational mathemusician' of agnostic gender who has worked for/with the Khan Academy as well as being an academic in her own right. Videos on the Vi Hart channel cover a lot of high school and university maths concepts, but they're built from the basics, and often revolve around easily accessible/visible/constructible more advanced concepts. My students may not understand all the mathematical theory in the videos on the Vihart channel, but they recognise the representations of concepts like hexaflexagons and infinity trees and how they fit (at a very basic level) with what they're learning in primary school.
The video above is still their favourite, though! We had a table filling up pinecones, flowers, weird seedpods and photos of vegetables and fruit from home after watching it.
If you're looking for a way to capture your students' attention (particularly your bright little buttons!) and get them wanting to explore the maths they're learning in class more deeply, or in ways they can see and touch in the world around them, Vi Hart is a phenomenal hook, line and sinker. You can also check out Vi's website here and follow Vi's Twitter feed here.
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