Ascension Episcopal School math teacher Lauren Daly often hears "When will we ever use this?" from students, so she brought in a local florist to help answer the question.
Carrie Leonard, a licensed florist, and owner of Posh Bouquet, talked with Daly's seventh-graders about the best ratio of plant food to water, the appeal of asymmetry versus symmetry, and the benefit of cutting stems at a 45-degree angle, showing how a variety of math concepts relate to her everyday life.
"To make the arrangement aesthetically pleasing, our tallest flowers in the arrangement should be 1.5 to 2 times the height of your vase," Leonard said. "Also, flowers should vary in height, be grouped in triangles of odd numbers, and include contrasting colors to provide depth."
The lesson didn't end there, though. Daly is having her students follow up with visuals showing the proportionality in floral arrangements as well as measure vases of different sizes to determine the tallest flower, she said.
"This all leads into my lesson on using rates to solve proportions which helps with making predictions," Daly said. "Later, we will even get technical and graph the proportional relationship and share with Mrs. Leonard to use as a cheat sheet."
Read the complete article at www.theadvertiser.com.