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teachingmom
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| Posted: May 23 2005 at 4:05pm | IP Logged
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The Washington Post has an interesting article on math in the Style section today. I found the mathematician that they interviewed to be interesting. He actually scored higher on the verbal section of the SAT than on the math section--and then went on to become a mathematician. He is a professor at Dartmouth College.
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 23 2005 at 10:11pm | IP Logged
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What a great article! I read the article out loud to my family (aimed mostly at my math phobic 11 yo ds  ), and we all loved it. My son all of a sudden wants to solve the problem to win the $1,000,000. 
I want to be more like the man in the article and see math everywhere. I thought it was so great that they pointed out how many mathematical problems have been solved by observing nature! The idea of math as the uncovering of the order naturally occurring in the world God created is so appealing to me.
I've been listening to the Teaching Company series on the History of Science and they touch on math history throughout as well. It's all so fascinating and I wish I knew more. I'm searching for some living math books for ME to read. I looked up the book from the article at Amazon hoping to follow some trails from there, but I just didn't find much.
Anyone have any interesting suggestions for math reading for mom?
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teachingmom
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| Posted: May 23 2005 at 10:26pm | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
| My son all of a sudden wants to solve the problem to win the $1,000,000. |
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My kids too! The girls just couldn't understand how I could have been a math major in college and not know how to solve every possible problem out there. They seemed a bit disappointed in me when I explained that there was no way I could win the million.
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Anne Marie M
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 11:50am | IP Logged
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Richelle,
Tell me more about the History of Science series you have. I think I remember them offereng several (maybe differentiated by time period?). Which one do you have? Are you having your kids listen to it? Would the set be appropriate for a high school senior? Younger kids?
Sorry to bombard you with questions - I'm just so excited to know someone who has actually has one of their history of science sets! We have the Astronomy set, and a few of my older kids are watching the videos (library book sale: $25!!!!!).
Thanks,
Anne Marie
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 2:48pm | IP Logged
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Anne Marie,
I'm listening to the three part series History of Science: Antiquity to 1700. I'm getting them from our library. I listened to part 1 a while back which was mostly Antiquity. I just got part 2 this week. This one seems to be primarily middle ages. In the first set of tapes he spends some time discussing how science was really seen as natural philosophy rather than science as we know it now. It was fascinating! So far in this set of tapes, I've found the influence of the Islamic's on math and science very interesting and it's about to get into science in Europe during the time period.
I wouldn't see any problem with listening to them with your kids. I actually think it could inspire kids to see the richness of math and science by looking at the fascinating history of it. I've considered having my ds 11 listen with me. I don't think there would be anything in it that a child even younger couldn't listen to (though I wasn't listening with that in mind, so I might be wrong). Someone with a different sense of discernment might disagree, but I have not noticed anything of concern in this series yet. In fact part of what I like is that he talks about how it is difficult to seperate religion from science and for most of history no one tried to. When religion comes up he addresses it in (to my discernment) a very comfortable way.
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Anne Marie M
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 2:57pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Richelle!
I don't think our library has any of the Teaching Company's sets - but you've inspired me to check!
Anne Marie
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MacBeth
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 3:09pm | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
| Anyone have any interesting suggestions for math reading for mom? |
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I have a few I have enjoyed...
Fermat's Enigma
The Joy of Pi
The Golden Ratio
Fantasia Mathematica
I have quite a few on my math page that are for high school or adult level, too. I like math 
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Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 3:53pm | IP Logged
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Thanks MacBeth! I've been to your site before, but I didn't think to look there for adult options. I'm going to look for some of these books. I think I might be a math geek wannabe.
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 3:55pm | IP Logged
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Anne Marie,
The Teaching Company has a special program for libraries, so I think there are many libraries that have at least some of these series. If your local library system doesn't have it, you might have better luck with interlibrary loan.
Good Luck! If you run across any other interesting series, let me know.
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 26 2005 at 10:20am | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
| I wouldn't see any problem with listening to them with your kids. |
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I'm getting further into Part II of this series and I'm feeling some reservations about my original recommendations. I still think it's a great series and I think he is presenting the history pretty fairly, but the truth is that religion and science do get a little bit uncomfortably tangled up in history. I think it might be wise to listen to each tape first so that you have an idea of what's coming and you are prepared to discuss anything that might concern you dc with them. I'd probably avoid listening with kids that are young. They might not have the ability to think through some of the religious implications when they are younger. I would still listen with my 11 yo ds, but he is pretty bright spiritually and I think he would be capable of making sense of the entanglements with some discussion. HTH.
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Math article in Washington Post
