Enrichment for Students Interested in Math
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, translated by Michael Heim. “In two dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, encounters a sly, clever number devil who introduces him to the world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers… a book for children and other thinking beings.” An international best-seller.
A Gebra Named Al by Wendy Isdell (written by an 8th grader). “This fun adventure capers through the land of mathematics using the vocabulary of algebra.”
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. “Classic of science (and mathematical) fiction describes the journeys of A. Square and his adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions). A. Square also entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions- a revolutionary idea for which he is banished from Spaceland.”
Secrets, Lies and Algebra by Wendy Lichtman. “Tess (8th grade) loves math because it is the one subject she can trust…when even your friends and parents can be variables, how in the world do you find out the right answers to the really important questions?”
Sticks by Joan Bauer is about an 11 year old boy loves to play pool but has to compete against the 13-year old school bully. The main character’s best friend is a math whiz who helps him appreciate the role that understanding angles plays in mastering pool.
How to be a Math Genius by Dr. Mike Goldsmith: available Ottoson library, 510 DK
Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition by Steve Olsen: describes the experiences of the US team to the 2001 International Math Olympiad
In Code by Sarah Flannery: written by a young woman who was 16 when she won Ireland’s Young Scientist of the Year award for her project on cryptography (or cryptology, a branch of mathematics and computer science that is concerned with code-breaking, such as reading secret transmissions from a country’s enemies, or with prohibiting others from accessing sensitive information, such as passwords for computer programs). The book includes many cryptography puzzles
When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish by Martin Gardner, author of the “Mathematical Games” column for Scientific American for 25 years. “Martin has turned thousands of children into mathematicians and thousands of mathematicians in to children.” (Ronald Graham, mathematician at UCSC)
The Art of Problem Solving, Volumes 1 & 2, by Sandor Leholzky and Richard Rusczyk
The Equation that Couldn’t Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry by Mario Livio
Ways to Think about Mathematics by Steve Bensen et al
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
The Mobius Strip: Dr. August Mobiius’ Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology by Clifford Parker (also wrote Surfing Through Hyperspace and Time: A Traveler’s Guide)
Fractals, Googols, and other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas (also wrote The Joy of Mathematics, More Joy of Mathematics, and Math Talk)
Internet Sites
www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/simpsonsmath/: exploring math-related concepts in episodes of “The Simpsons”
Mathematicians of the African Diaspora www.math.buffalo.edu/mad, maintained by Dr. Scott Wl Williams, professor of mathematics at the State University of NY at Buffalo. "The website ..includes a chronology of Africans and African Americans who have become the first to earn doctoral degrees in mathematics since the last 1800s... (it) provides information on Black physicists, scientists, and computer scientists, as well as support for students working on science projects."
Fenway Fever has an opening sequence that includes a math teacher taking his advanced math students on a field trip to a corporation in order to observe some applications of math in the real world
(We’d love to list your favorites as well- please give suggestions to Mrs. Duke!)