Size Matters

In school, math was a subject I had always struggled with. Part of that was likely because I told myself it was hard, which created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The other end is that I needed examples that made sense to my brain. Take, for example, the concept of surface area.

During my first field summer in 2019, my advisor, Dr. George Middendorf, was explaining lizard behavior to me. He asked me “why may you see a small and young lizard darting in and out of the shade more often than a larger and older lizard?”

The answer was surface area - The total area of the surface of the object. Smaller lizards have less total skin, so on a hot day, they’ll heat up considerably faster, while on a cool day, they lose heat faster. Thinking about surface area in terms of anatomy made the concept click for me.

What is an unconventional way you’ve learned a new concept?

Also! Can you #FindThatLizard?

Let me know in the comments with #FoundThatLizard!