Math resources by Claymom (2013-06-03 02:15:43)

The following is a list with suggestions of books that might appeal to students who love math or that might make math more fun and interesting for other students.

1. Any book by Martin Gardner (some examples):

My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles (Math & Logic Puzzles),

   Aha!, Gotcha!,

   Perplexing Puzzles and Tantalizing Teasers (Math & Logic Puzzles)

2. Any book by Brian Bolt

 Mathematical Activities,

   Even More Mathematical Activities, A Mathematical

   Pandora's Box

3. Brown Paper School book Series:

 Math for Smarty Pants by Marilyn Burns,

   I Hate Mathematics! by Linda Allison,

   Marilyn Burns, and David Weitzman

4. Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Published by Mindware: Lateral Thinking Puzzle Set

Any book by Paul Sloane: Learn How to Think Sideways, Classic Lateral Thinking

Challenges, Lateral Thinking Puzzlers

5. Logic Puzzles books:

Sip & Solve: Logic Puzzles (Sip & Solve Series) by Mark Zegarelli,

   Logic Puzzles to Bend Your Brain by Kurt Smith,

   Armchair Puzzlers Book - Logic Puzzles by University Games

6. Any puzzle books published by Mindware (http://www.mindwareonline.com):

 Number Junctions, Math Path Puzzles,

   What's the Missing Part of the Equation?,

   Venn Perplexors or Math Perplexors

7. Mathematicians are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians by

    Luetta Reimer and Wilbert Reimer

8. The World of MC Escher by M C & Locher, J L Escher

9. Sudoku puzzles or Kakuro puzzles.

10. Can You Believe Your Eyes? by J. Richard Block and H.E. Yuker

11. Any book by David Macaulay

The Way Things Work by David Macaulay and David Eckold

12. How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff and Irving Geis

13. Flatland (Oxford World's Classics) by Edwin Abbott and Rosemary Jann





Math Suggestion for Parents
“Math is not about what you know…it’s about how you react when you see something that you don’t”

Just as the English Department provides a Summer Reading List, the Math Department would like to offer the following list of activities that could help you and your child make math a part of your summer.

1) Math board games that deal with math. My favorite ones for middle school students are SET (a game of logic), SMATH or EQUATE (a math Scrabble game), MINDTRAP, 24, TANGOES (puzzles with Tangrams), TRI-OMINOS, KRYPTO (number puzzles), SNAFOOZ puzzles, and MASTERMIND.

2) Review material in order to be ready for next year’s math class. Tri-C Publications, Inc. publishes a parent-purchased summer review program that you can order online (http://summerskills.com/store/index.html). The program is designed to review mathematical concepts through mixed-skills practice that can be completed in 10-20 minutes, 3 times per week for 10 weeks. The workbook includes tutorial help pages, solution pages, an answer key and all the tools needed to successfully complete the lessons.

3) Increase the use of math in the daily conversations that you have with your child. This, I believe, is the most important suggestion. Read the newspaper together and look at the numbers in you find. Critically analyze the graphs that you see in articles; discuss sale flyers, sports statistics, etc. Ask your child to calculate the tip in a restaurant, to balance your checkbook for the summer, or to keep a spreadsheet of expenses or of your vacation budget. When at the supermarket, ask her to estimate the cost of the purchases or to find unit prices in order to look for the best buy. When you are going on a car trip, ask him to find out how many miles per gallon your car gets. Ask her to project how much longer it will take to get to your destination, how often you will have to stop for gas, etc. If you are traveling to a different country, discuss exchange rates and make him be in charge of calculating different costs in dollars.

 Remember, as Joan Allen Paulos wrote in A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper(Doubleday 1995), "Mathematics is not primarily a matter of plugging numbers into formulas and performing rote computations. It is a way of thinking and questioning that may be unfamiliar to many of us, but is available to almost all of us." Make math a part of your daily life. Our world is a quantitative world. Working together with your child to increase their enjoyment of mathematics, and helping them feel confident in their ability to do mathematics will increase their future choices in life.