Out of the Labyrinth
Setting Mathematics Free
1st Edition
Published on 4. February 2014
256 pages
978-1-60819-889-4 (ISBN)
Description
"In this sparkling narrative, mathematics is indeed set free." -Michael Shermer, author of The Believing Brain
In classrooms around the world, Robert and Ellen Kaplan's pioneering Math Circle program, begun at Harvard, has introduced students ages six to sixty to the pleasures of mathematics, exploring topics that range from Roman numerals to quantum mechanics.
In Out of the Labyrinth, the Kaplans reveal the secrets of their highly successful approach, which embraces the exhilarating joy of math's "accessible mysteries." Stocked with puzzles, colorful anecdotes, and insights from the authors' own teaching experience, Out of the Labyrinth is both an engaging and practical guide for parents and educators, and a treasure chest of mathematical discoveries. For any reader who has felt the excitement of mathematical discovery-or tried to convey it to someone else-this volume will be a delightful and valued companion.
In classrooms around the world, Robert and Ellen Kaplan's pioneering Math Circle program, begun at Harvard, has introduced students ages six to sixty to the pleasures of mathematics, exploring topics that range from Roman numerals to quantum mechanics.
In Out of the Labyrinth, the Kaplans reveal the secrets of their highly successful approach, which embraces the exhilarating joy of math's "accessible mysteries." Stocked with puzzles, colorful anecdotes, and insights from the authors' own teaching experience, Out of the Labyrinth is both an engaging and practical guide for parents and educators, and a treasure chest of mathematical discoveries. For any reader who has felt the excitement of mathematical discovery-or tried to convey it to someone else-this volume will be a delightful and valued companion.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Illustrations
B&W
ISBN-13
978-1-60819-889-4 (9781608198894)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2014
Bloomsbury Press
€38.56
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Persons
Robert and Ellen Kaplan have taught subjects ranging from Sanskrit through mathematics to philosophy and history, and founded the Math Circle in 1994. Robert Kaplan is the author of the bestselling The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero. Ellen is coauthor, with their son Michael, of Chances Are . . . and Bozo Sapiens. Together, Robert and Ellen are the authors of The Art of the Infinite. Their website is www.themathcircle.org.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter One: A Glimpse Inside
- Chapter Two: Cod Liver Oil
- Chapter Three: The Myth of Talent
- Chapter Four: Making Your Hats
- 1. Holding On
- Stubbornness
- Orneriness
- A High Threshold of Frustration
- The Jump-Cut Mind
- Putting On Hold
- 2. Taking Apart
- Method vs. Approach
- Atomizing
- Attention Without Tension
- Precision
- Rotating the Diamond
- Breaking Apart
- Pursuing the Possible
- 3. Putting Together
- Play
- Stubbornness Revisited
- The Riddle of the Pygmy Shrew
- Analogy
- Holding Hypotheses Like Birds
- Experimental Fervor
- The Architectural Instinct
- The Conductor
- Chapter Five: The Great Barrier Reef
- Language: Symbols
- Language: Equations
- Language: Third Person Remote
- The Buddha, the Bodhisattva, and the Bo
- Climbing a Tall Building
- Alienation
- Diamond Hard
- Who Cares?
- Chapter Six: How Math Has Been Taught
- Behind the Phenomena
- The Teaching Wars
- Cookbooks, Song-Lines, and Games
- Ancestral Voices Calling for Reform
- Anticurriculum
- The Curate's Egg
- Russian Math Circles
- Chapter Seven: How Mathematicians Actually Work
- Chapter Eight: The Math Circle
- Ends
- Beginnings
- The Students
- The Leaders
- The Math
- Connecting
- Intuition Grows
- A Proof Takes Shape
- Looking Leads to Seeing
- Competition
- Chapter Nine: Filling in the Details
- Where's the Kit?
- Math Itself
- Courses
- Sample Outline of a Middle Course: Interesting Points in Triangles
- Piecemeal Advice
- Perilous Turnings and Pivotal Moments
- From a Journal
- What's the Way Forward?
- The Summer Institute
- To Take with You
- Acknowledgments
- Footnotes
- Appendix: Thoughts of a Young Teacher
- A Note on Our Pronouns
- eCopyright
