Throughout history the Golden Ratio has been the numerical representation of beauty and proportion, and now one Midstate high school student is using it to teach kids with disabilities subjects like art, music and math,
 
     What started as a senior capstone project culminated in a performance at the Parthenon Wednesday night for Merrol Hyde senior Christian Kissinger, who is helping disabled kids express themselves artistically.
 
"We have everything from kids with just learning disabilities to blind to autism to Asperger's, a very wide range of disabilities," Kissinger said.
 
And to do it, he's using a number called the Golden Ratio.  But what is that exactly?
 
"It's 1.618 but it goes on forever," Kissinger said.  "It's an infinite number."
 
The number is derived from another series of numbers called the Fibonacci sequence:
 
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025, 121393, 196418, 317811…
 
To advance the sequence you add the last number to the one before it: 1 1=2, 2 1=3, 3 2=5…and so on.
 
When you divide one number by the one preceding it you get approximately 1.618...and the higher you go, the closer you get.
 
"It's extremely fascinating because of the depth that it goes into," Kissinger said.
 
Perhaps even more fascinating is that you can find the golden ratio just about everywhere from art to nature.

You can see it in the nautilus shell.  The geometric mask that's said to map the ideal human face is also based on the ratio.  You can see it in the Mona Lisa and you can even find it in architecture like the pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon.
 
"If you measure certain parts of your body, it is there," said Lori Kissinger, Christian s mother.  "It's just everywhere."
 
Lori Kissinger is also the executive director of VSA, an organization that helps kids with disabilities.
 
She says Christian's project and the number itself make subjects easier for the kids to understand.
 
"It has helped children with disabilities learn more about math," Lori Kissinger said.  "It has helped them express themselves.  It has helped them connect with another culture."
 
Christian, says he's proud of seeing his semester-long project come to life but also excited to see where it leads in the future.
 
"I'm really excited for the kids, Kissinger said.  I know they 're very ecstatic about this.  It's really rewarding and hopefully I'll be helping a lot of people."Student Uses Golden Ratio to Help Kids with Disabilities - Eric Alvarez