Blog Post #3

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children’s book written by Eric Carle. The story begins at night with a little egg on a leaf, which then evolves one Sunday morning into a very small and hungry caterpillar. He began looking for some food because he was hungry. On Monday morning he ate through 1 apple, but was still hungry. On Tuesday he ate through 2 pears but was still hungry. On Wednesday he ate through 3 plums but he was still hungry. On Thursday he ate through 4 strawberries but he was still hungry. On Friday he ate through 5 oranges, but he was still hungry. On Saturday he ate through many things and then had a stomach ache. Then came Sunday, he ate through a nice green leaf and then felt much better. After that he wasn’t hungry anymore nor was he small, he was large and built a cocoon and two weeks later evolved into a butterfly.

2) The Very Hungry Caterpillar demonstrates constant rate of change. The caterpillar, as the days of the week go by, increases his consumption by a factor of 1 each following day. In other words, Monday he consumes 1, Tuesday 2, Wednesday 3, Thursday 4 and Friday 5. Up until Friday the book demonstrates a constant rate of change of 1. After Friday I could say that the book also partially demonstrates exponential growth because on Saturday he eats about 10 things, meaning from one day to the next he increases his consumption by a factor of 5, not 1. This book does a well job of showing a constant rate of change, then a little bit of exponential growth, to an extent.

3) I believe literature is an effective way to teach a mathematical concept because it demonstrates mathematical concepts primarily in very simple and understandable ways, such as the numerous amounts of children books. It can easily teach young children how to count, as well as older children and young men to better understand concepts that are taught in the classroom.