B Shirman and A Volkening.
What's math got to do with patterns in fish?
Submitted to Frontiers for Young Minds (intended audience: age 8 and up). 2021.

If you have questions or suggestions about this website, please email Prof. Alexandria Volkening.

This public-science website and associated article for young readers is meant to introduce children to how scientists combine biology, computer coding, and math to discover how patterns form in animal skin. We are new to writing articles for children, and, if you have suggestions or comments, we would be grateful to hear your feedback. We'd also love to see what patterns your students create!

Teachers: This project started out as an outreach craft that I (AV) developed to share my research in elementary-school settings, provide students with an example of women mathematicians and what it means to be a "doctor" in math, and encourage children to think broadly about what math is, who does it, and how it can be used. I have led interactive STEM crafts and presentations with students at schools and summer programs in Providence, Columbus, and Chicago. My presentations on animal patterns have been adapted for audiences ranging from kindergarteners to senior citizens. I am always looking for opportunities to partner with the community, and, if you are a K-12 teacher interested in math presentations (virtual or in person), I would be happy to hear from you.

Fish patterns made by 3rd graders in Columbus, OH (2018)

Blake Shirman received his B.A. from University of California, Irvine, and he is currently pursuing his Master's degree in mathematics at DePaul University. His goal is to one day get a Ph.D. in pure math, and his research interests are in logic and discrete math. Specifically, BS enjoys exploring insightful representations – such as graph-theoretic, algebraic, or probabilistic structures – in combinatorics.

Alexandria Volkening received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Brown University and her B.S. in math from UMBC. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Purdue University. In her research, AV develops mathematical models of complex systems, especially pattern formation in fish and voter dynamics in elections.

We are grateful to Jithin George, Katelyn Joy Leisman, Niall Mangan, and Sasha Shirman for helpful feedback on this manuscript, and Blake Shirman thanks Sasha Shirman for providing suggestions on JavaScript. We also thank Domenico Bullara and Yannick De Decker for publishing their model software, since it was a helpful example as we built our JavaScript code.