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Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

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Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#2

Post by vog »

This strongly reminds me of the various math magazines we have here in Germany. (I know that other countries have similar magazines, but I only grew up with the German ones, except for one Canadian one.)

The most popular seems to be "Wurzel" [1] (translated: "root").

The target audience of the magazines are students (pupils) at school, as well as young students at university. The articles explain advanced math topics. Not too advanced, of course, but still far outside what they see in school. The articles use formalisms only where they make things more clear. They build on common school knowledge. Advanced formalisms are only okay if they are introduced in the article. And the articles aren't too long. The goal is that everything can be understood by students, if they are interested.

Also, the magazines usually contain reports about math olympiads and similar activities, usually written by participants (i.e. by students, not teachers).

Finally, these contain math exercises. But don't think of school exercises. Think of math olympiad, just that you have more time to solve them. Students send their solutions in and it is published in the magazine which students solved which exercise successfully.

The latter one should not be underestimated - it is more or less how all these magazines started: You have math competition, the students go back to school, and you want to keep in touch with them, so you offer them so solche math puzzles in their free time, give them feedback to their solutions, and do everything they don't feel alone with their mathematical interests. You can do that individually only with so many students, so you start a magazine for a more efficient communication.

[1] http://wurzel.org/

Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#3

Post by jonnybgood »

vog wrote: post #2

This strongly reminds me of the various math magazines we have here in Germany. (I know that other countries have similar magazines, but I only grew up with the German ones, except for one Canadian one.) The most popular seems to be "Wurzel" [1] (translated: "root"). The target audience of the magazines are students (pupils) at school, as well as young students at university. The articles explain advanced math topics…

You reminded me of Chalkdust [0]. I would love to see more publications along these lines.

[0] http://chalkdustmagazine.com

Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#5

Post by mathgenius »

vog wrote: post #2

This strongly reminds me of the various math magazines we have here in Germany. (I know that other countries have similar magazines, but I only grew up with the German ones, except for one Canadian one.) The most popular seems to be "Wurzel" [1] (translated: "root"). The target audience of the magazines are students (pupils) at school, as well as young students at university. The articles explain advanced math topics…

> far outside what they see in school

There's so much cool mathematics out there that school kids can understand given a good enough teacher. It's really disappointing to me the crud that gets taught in school, but then i remember that a big part of this is the teachers just aren't that inspired. All it takes is one or two good teachers to really change a kids outlook on mathematics.

Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#6

Post by CurtMonash »

The great teachers of math to kids in the US are of course the Ross Program folks. (When last I checked in I thought Boston University's Promys was actually livelier than the original Ross Program at Ohio State.) They basically take very smart kids and help the rediscover much of abstract algebra and basic number theory.

Decades later, I probably couldn't state quadratic reciprocity any more, let alone prove it. But proving the Two Squares Theorem is still one of the best ways to clear my mind of less pleasant thoughts, should I need such a device. It's just a whole lot of fun, even if you go in assuming next to nothing. (I start by proving that the Gaussian Integers are a Euclidean Domain and that all Euclidean Domains are Principal Ideal Domains, and proceed from there. It doesn't take long.)

Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#7

Post by briandear »

mathgenius wrote: post #5
vog wrote: post #2

This strongly reminds me of the various math magazines we have here in Germany. (I know that other countries have similar magazines, but I only grew up with the German ones, except for one Canadian one.) The most popular seems to be "Wurzel" [1] (translated: "root"). The target audience of the magazines are students (pupils) at school, as well as young students at university. The articles explain advanced math topics…

> far outside what they see in school There's so much cool mathematics out there that school kids can understand given a good enough teacher. It's really disappointing to me the crud that gets taught in school, but then i remember that a big part of this is the teachers just aren't that inspired. All it takes is one or two good teachers to really change a kids outlook on mathematics.

You also have the problem (at least in public schools,) that teachers are obliged to “stick to the curriculum” and much of a teacher’s time is spent catering to the lowest common denominator lest the test scores fall to an unacceptable level.

I might argue that kids should get a double period for math, especially earlier in their school careers — one class to teach the fundamentals, another class to simply explore. The benefit being that critical thinking is enhanced in all academic areas and not just the obvious in mathematics.

Re: Communicating Advanced Mathematics to Kids

#9

Post by yogrish »

vog wrote: post #2

This strongly reminds me of the various math magazines we have here in Germany. (I know that other countries have similar magazines, but I only grew up with the German ones, except for one Canadian one.) The most popular seems to be "Wurzel" [1] (translated: "root"). The target audience of the magazines are students (pupils) at school, as well as young students at university. The articles explain advanced math topics…

reddit.com/r/ELIF is also good for explaining any topic in a simple way so even a kid also can understand. Its Not targeted towards maths though but biology / physics/technology etc. Have a look.
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