Is Your Body in "Golden" Shape?

Patricia Winkler
DeBakey High School for Health Professions
3100 Shenandoah
Houston, TX 77021
email:  pwinkler@houstonisd.org

©Copyright March 19, 1998. All rights reserved. This lesson is intended to be used by classroom teachers not for publication. If you wish to copy this lesson in quantities greater than 3 please contact the author via email or snail mail at the address above. This lesson is based on a lesson in the textbook "Discovering Geometry" by Michael Serra and published by Key Curriculum Press.

Overview

This is a lesson intended to give students to opportunity to explore the claims of American researcher, Jay Hambridge, and others. They have established that the Golden Ratio can be found in the human skeleton.

Objectives

The student will:

1. find patterns in data.
2. use deductive reasoning to compare the data from all groups of students and draw general conclusions based on the data.
3. determine sample size.
4. discuss the effect of sample size on the conclusions drawn.
5. develop statistical strategies for improved sample size.
6. determine whether or not there is any data which will skew the results and why the data was inconsistent with the sample.

Audience

This lesson can be conducted with any age student who can read a tape measure with accuracy.

Prerequisite Skills

The student should be able to:

1. accurately measure an object to the nearest millimeter or fraction of an inch.
2. compute ratios of related body measures.
3. enter information into a given form (paper or Internet)

Materials Needed

	tape measures for each student or pair of students
	list of measurements to be taken for each student
	chart to fill in

Procedures

Evaluation

Resources

• The Golden Ratio Homepage
• Fibonacci