Grade 4/5 students at Conrad investigate mathematical connections to Cedar weaving patterns

 

  

  

 

The students at Conrad have spent the last couple of weeks investigating how the visual increasing and decreasing patterns found in some cedar weaving examples can be analyzed numerically. They learned algorithms that helped  them weave the patterns they were studying as well as a few new alternating and repeating patterns. Yesterday aboriginal role model, Fanny Nelson, visited the class and taught students how to weave patterns with real  red and yellow cedar bark, rather than the paper imitation cedar that they had been using before. Students were surprised to learn how sticky that yellow cedar bark can be in comparison to red cedar and learned that the cedar strips must be soaked in water before they are flexible enough to weave with.