Lessons in action

A poem from Presentation Primary in Limerick

Why can’t a cheetah change its spots?
A question Alan Turing thought about a lot.

We looked at the cheetah’s fur,
Until it turned into a pixelated blur,
We looked at the cheetah’s spots,
Until we could barely see any dots.

We looked at numbers in animal cells,
To figure out what they could tell,
Fire cells! Water cells!
What a challenge for our brain cells.

What do the numbers in animal cells tell us about a cheetah’s skin?
Oh we need help from Alan Turing!
Before we can even begin,
This mathematical thing.

We looked at Alan Turing’s algorithm,
Until we found our mathematical rhythm,
Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,
How did Alan make such mathematical decisions?

Hip Hip Horray, Hip Hip Horray,
Alan Turing found a way!
Turing’s algorithm must perform,
To see the cheetah’s black spots form.

Fire cells, water cells,
The chemicals react,
Releasing mathematical facts,
That turned the cheetah’s spots black.

Hip Hip Horray, Hip Hip Horray,
Thank you very much Natasha Ellison,
And Sheffield University for sharing the work you’ve done,
We had so much fun,
Each and every one!

By Marta O’Sullivan, fourth class primary teacher.