Robert’s Summer Math Suggestions
By Robert Berkman
Math Coordinator
Break out the Tablet
Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad math apps out there which are little more than electronic flash cards. At gottasolveit.blogspot.com you’ll find in-depth reviews of tablet based puzzles that will develop the grey matter in your child’s brain; there’s enough content there to entertain your child on a 37 hour road trip across the Amazon!
Read a Book
Attached to this newsletter is a reading list of general interest books featuring mathematical themes, including The Housekeeper and the Professor, a novel about a mathematician and his relationship with the woman who minds him, and her lonely son. The Man Who Counted is a wonderful collection of mathematical adventures, and for those who like biographies, In Code: A Mathematical Journey is the true story of Irish teenager Sarah Flannery who masters the art of cryptography.
Go to an Exhibit
The arts are a wonderful way to experience mathematics, whether you are looking at the beautiful geometric sculptures of Mark DiSevero on Governors Island, or the geometry laid out by Robert Smithson, Dan Flavin and Frank Stella at MOMA. Mathematics is out there, waiting for you to discover, appreciate and enjoy.
Watch a Video (?)
Violet Hart, a teen living out in the wilds of Long Island, calls herself a “recreational mathematician.” Her blog, www.vihart.com, features captivating (and quite silly) short films about everything from how to do a finger dance to the binary system, to a discourse on why she is against pi (the transcendental number, not the dessert). Great fun for the avant garde performer that lives within all of us.
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