Post by Cherie M. Poland, MA, MS, MEng, JD

Expand your mind. Spent the morning teachings my girls about two remarkable women mathematicians: Sophie Germain and Zara Hadid. ...and then we fed the cows some bread. The amazing inspiration of nature also gives rise to the internal strength it takes to persevere against all odds, like a lone plant, whom some lesser souls might call a weed, breaking through the concrete jungle, finding just enough of a foot-hold and the will to hold on. Inspiration for the movie Wall-E (wali -> look-up the Arabic definition; protector) Sophie Germain grew up during the French Revolution & found comfort in numbers. She was inspired by patterns of sand formed from the vibrational frequencies of bow string pulled across the side of a glass plate. She was the first person to prove Fermat’s theory correct for a large group of numbers, which have since been called Sophie Germain prime numbers. She died of breast cancer at 55. Perhaps if there had been better genetics or screenings she would have solved them all. Zara Hadid never gave up her dreams of seeing buildings that mimic nature, for nature builds in the geometry of curves, not rectangles. She was a mathematician & architect. Neither gave up on their dreams. Teaching my kids stick-to-it-ive-ness is one of my most important tasks as a mom.