I just uploaded a book of Polyomino Lessons to my Web site. The book first came out in 1986, and has long been out of print. It includes a wide range of puzzles and activities for middle and high school, mostly carried out on grid paper.Here are some solutions to one of the puzzles: One… Continue reading Polyomino Lessons
Tag: MyBooks
Manipulatives update
As larger publishers swallow smaller ones, educational materials with a smaller market tend to be removed from the market. As an author, I have been a victim of this economic reality for quite some time now. However today I have some good news on that front.My book Geometry Labs was originally published by Key Curriculum… Continue reading Manipulatives update
Puzzles in math education
Scott Kim, the author of the excellent Inversions, is launching a crusade to bring more puzzles to math education. He gave a talk on this subject at the Gathering 4 Gardner. (See the slides.) Martin Gardner, of course, is the author of the long-running Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. He inspired who knows how… Continue reading Puzzles in math education
The Quadratic Formula
In the period following the publication of Algebra: Themes, Tools, Concepts, we started asking our Math 1 students to write and illustrate a short report or poster, tying in four representations of a trinomial in the form x^2+bx+c. (Math 1 is Urban School's Math Department's version of Algebra 1, sort of.) I just posted a… Continue reading The Quadratic Formula
Additional notes on ATTC
I just added one final page about Algebra: Themes, Tools, Concepts. It consists of errata and other notes I took in the first few years after the book was published, in anticipation of a second printing or second edition that never happened. It may be a useful complement to the abundant notes in the Teachers'… Continue reading Additional notes on ATTC
Perplexity
On January 11, Internet celebrity and Stanford grad student Dan Meyer worked with the Math Dept at the Urban School, plus a handful of members of Escape from the Textbook! He presented his thoughts about how to design and present modeling problems, but in fact his ideas have broader applicability.I had already seen Dan's TED… Continue reading Perplexity
ATTC upgrade
Algebra: Themes, Tools, Concepts (ATTC) is an algebra textbook I co-authored with Anita Wah in the early 90's. It was ground-breaking in some ways, and includes many extraordinarily effective approaches to the teaching of algebra. In fact, ATTC features powerful lessons on many parts of secondary school math, which are used by teachers in grades… Continue reading ATTC upgrade
Geometry Labs
My book Geometry Labs is now available for free download on my Web site.Whew! It was a bit of work to get it ready.--HenriPS: In addition to the book itself, I'll be adding links to revisions and extensions of the labs. So far, a revision of the rep-tile lab, and an extension of the soccer… Continue reading Geometry Labs
Escape! Meeting notes 3 — habits of mind
This is the third and final installment of my notes from the Bay Area fall meeting of Escape from the Textbook!(Part 1) (Part 2)We ended the meeting with a segment led by Avery Pickford. (See his notes about the meeting.)He presented this problem:(He didn't present it exactly like this -- this is how the problem… Continue reading Escape! Meeting notes 3 — habits of mind
Interview
I was interviewed by MathMirror.org about a variety of math education topics.You can watch the videos (3 parts, 4 to 6 minutes each) on their Perspective #6 page.On the same site is a quite interesting article by Tom Murray about the demise of small math education publishers. --Henri
Henri's Math Education Blog 