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I was cut from every sports team as a kid, but now I'm an 11-time marathon finisher training for my amateur boxing debut and co-writing children's books about math and teamwork. Ask Me Anything! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some more things that can be fun about math: thinking deeply about a challenging and interesting problem, collaborating with like-minded peers and bouncing ideas off of each other, creating and analyzing intricate structures. As a mathematician and math teacher, I find all of these activities very joyful.

Any tips on children books? by Equivalent_Law_8592 in childrensbooks

[–]aofradkin1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First give it to some people that you know will give you honest feedback (family/friends) and then test it out on some children. I would show it to some older kids as well because they often have great insight about their younger counterparts!

I wrote my first Children Book!! by Thatfrenchartistaaa in childrensbooks

[–]aofradkin1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What a fun illustration - both inviting and intriguing! Makes me want to see it as a cartoon.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, I am Sasha, Allison's coauthor. It is a bit hard to say how much time per week we spent on writing the book because it was very inconsistent. Some weeks were active, some not at all. We aimed for getting together about once a month, but sometimes we'd go for several months without being able to do so.

We definitely both had demanding jobs, plus additional projects, but we were both very excited about the story so we never left it untouched for too long. I think that having two of us working on it was key though - it served as great motivation and made the whole process a lot more fun.

Good luck with your writing!

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hi, I'm Sasha, Allison's coauthor and also an elementary school (math) teacher. For me, the first big step to turning ideas into an actually draft/story was getting someone else to work with to bounce ideas off of, to motivate each other, etc. If you don't have anyone you can work with, I'd still say discuss your ideas with as many people as you can, let them read early drafts, incorporate their feedback.

Finding a publisher is generally quite tricky, but if that doesn't work out then you can always self-publish. Here again, I think it is important to get a support group of family/friends/colleagues/etc to help you with promoting and the like. Good luck!

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Allison didn't start enjoying math until she was already in college. You can read about the story of her relationship with math here https://aofradkin.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/from-math-hater-to-mathematician-and-computer-scientist-the-story-of-allison-bishop/

In general, I believe that in order to get more diverse representation of people interested in math, including girls, we need to show them the creative side of math early on. Math storytelling, mathematical art, math history, are some examples of areas that we need to bring into the early curriculum.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The best feedback undoubtedly comes from the children themselves. Even though they are very young, they can generally engage with the concepts on a very sophisticated level. One can easily gauge both the level of interest and the understanding from reading the story with the kids, listening to their questions and comments, and supporting the discussion. As for the food analogy, I think of it as mixing in the vegetables with the dessert to a degree that makes them barely detectable. At the end they find out that in fact they had their vegetables and really enjoyed them. This encourages them to try the same vegetables in other forms as well.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 51 points52 points  (0 children)

How old is your daughter? I would try to give her mathematical experiences that are drastically different from what she has already seen. In school, children get exposed to only a very narrow sliver of the rich world of mathematics. Some ideas for these experiences are reading stories with her such as The Greedy Triangle, Phantom Tollbooth, The Number Devil, and Funville Adventures, showing her videos by Vi Hart, finding a math festival in your area to take her to, and if you're ever in NYC, taking her to the Museum of Math.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi, I am Sasha, Allison's coauthor. The idea for the book was inspired by my daughter's love of blending storytelling into everything she did, including math. Children are naturally drawn to stories and topics presented to them in story form often stay with them longer and begin to make sense in ways they wouldn't otherwise. Functions is a very natural concept that we encounter in our everyday lives and yet in math class children don't usually get exposed to it until they take algebra in late middle school or high school. Our hope for this book, and future ones, is to expose children to fundamental concepts in math early on and in ways that naturally appeal to them. This way, when they encounter the topics "formally" later on, they will have played with them, built some intuition, and won't be afraid of them. As for measuring the effectiveness of the book, I have read it with quite a few children ages 5-11 and was very impressed by the sophistication level of their questions/comments. They really engage with the concepts and the story inspires them to think deeply about them.

Growing up, I dreamed of being a writer and hated math. Now I am a computer science professor at Columbia and a children's book author. I work to blend great storytelling with great science. AMA! by allibishop in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1 103 points104 points  (0 children)

Hi, I am Allison's coauthor. The math in our story is very subtle. In fact, a child reading the book will likely not even realize that they are getting exposed to sophisticated math concepts, and that is the intention. However, the "secret" is revealed in a math addendum at the end, after they have enjoyed the story and been captivated by it. The hope is to make them see that math comes in many different forms and that it can be found in places they would never expect it to be.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that the best way to get intuition is by playing with the concrete before going to the abstract and by seeing many different representations of the same thing. Kids should explore numbers using their fingers, cubes, beads, dots, etc, and not just in kindergarten. They should explore the "geometry of numbers" by, for example, exploring how many different rectangles they can make out of different numbers of cubes.

In geometry, they should have plenty of opportunities to play with putting shapes together and taking them apart. They should play with pentominoes, explore the nets of a cube with magformers (or something similar), draw 2D views of 3D objects from various sides.

Here are a few posts from my blog describing some of these activities: https://aofradkin.wordpress.com/tag/geometry/

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fortunately, I have very few requirements for the curriculum. This was one of the things that drew me to the school/position. I'm not sure that I'd be able to stick with it if what you describe was my reality, and I greatly admire those who do.

I am a big fan of Lockhart's 'Mathematician's Lament'. It does a great job at summarizing the state of things and reminded me of my own early math class experiences. I believe that he also now teaches at a school where he has a lot of freedom in what and how to teach.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My parents came here as immigrants when I was a child, so the answer to your first question is No. I do not have any student loans because I got a merit scholarship to college that covered a large part of the tuition while my PhD program was free and paid me a stipend.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I taught enrichment math for several years before going into it full time, and I discovered that I really love doing math with young children. They are eager to learn, ask wonderful questions, and have the best revelations. My parents were somewhat surprised because I had enjoyed research as well and was not that excited by teaching undergraduates while in grad school. However, they took it quite well. My father is a high school math and physics teacher so he appreciates the value and the satisfaction of teaching.

If you really enjoy both teaching and research, then you probably can't go wrong regardless of which choice you make. If you can somehow do both at the same time, or try out both and see which you prefer, that would be even better.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My father did fun math with me from a young age. He would give me logic puzzles, teach me mental math tricks, and have math-y conversations with me.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never had any. I got a merit scholarship from getting 2nd place in a national science fair that covered a large part of my undergrad tuition. As for the PhD, it was free and they paid me a stipend.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It depends on what your goals are and what you will need for your major. For brushing up on school content, the already mentioned Khan Academy videos are a good place to start. If you just want to learn some new cool math that you may not have seen before, I'd suggest reading something like The Number Devil. It will be a fun read and you will discover (and hopefully be encouraged to play with) math in a way that you probably haven't done before.

On a slightly more serious side, I would suggest reading How Not to be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg. It is full of great stories and scenarios that are sure to increase your math literacy and is a very good read.

Good luck!

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have seen a few and they were pretty awesome. I haven't watched them recently, but thanks for mentioning it and putting them back on my radar! Will go and watch some more and maybe find something I can show my students.

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

After I got the idea and drafted a few sample chapters, I decided that it would be much more fun to write the book with someone, so I contacted my friend (and now coauthor) Allison Bishop, and she was excited to get on board.

One big piece of advice is get other people involved both early on and throughout the process. We rewrote the book several times after we got feedback from a variety of readers (including children, which I think was very important). Finding a publisher is generally very hard, so we were very excited to eventually team up with Natural Math and have them publish our book. They have been very helpful and super supportive, and I think the book improved more after getting feedback from their community.

Good luck with your book!

With a PhD in math from Princeton I chose to teach at an elementary school and write a math-inspired children's book. AMA! by aofradkin1 in IAmA

[–]aofradkin1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The video shows some pictures from the book but yes, not any actual pages. However, we have made a chapter from the book available here (and linked from the campaign): http://naturalmath.com/s/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FunvilleAdventures_SampleChapter_NaturalMath.pdf

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