Product Description
180 Fast-&-Fun Reproducible Problems & Puzzles that Help You Build Early Math Skills Every Day of the School Year
Meets the NCTM Standards! More than 150 Reproducible Pages! Covers all Math Concepts!
Add these easy-to-read math problems to your school day and watch kids fall in love with math as they learn addition, subtraction, time, money, estimation and much more! ... Read more

Product Description
Engage students with this collection of fun and interactive games that give them the extra practice they need to master important math skills in addition, subtraction, place value, and measurement. Classroom-tested, these reproducible games have been proven to significantly increase students' math achievement. Perfect for centers, for choice time, or for remedial help. For use with Grades 2–4. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

math
My students love to play with the math mats. They are learning and do not realize that they are learning. It is a great resource to put into independent centers. It is a great time filler for when you have a few extra minutes. It is also great to play with small groups.

games that inspire
I teach 2nd grade Special Education and this book has been amazing for me so far.The game boards are in black and white - but you can copy them on colored card stock or color them if you want.Some of my students need to play games or compete in order to participte. Some special ed students, even as young as 2nd grade, have learned that they can use their learning disabilities to get out of certain activities.But they all want to particiapte when a "winner" is involved! ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrated.PRESS OPINIONS ON "THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES.""It is a book of remarkable ingenuity and interest."—Educational Times."The most ingenious brain in England ... a fascinating new book."—Evening News."A capital book of posers."—Daily News."The Puzzles ... reach the limit of ingenuity and intricacy; and it is well for the sanity of his readers that the author gives a list of solutions at the end of the book."—Observer."A book that will provide much entertainment for Christmas gatherings ... ingenious puzzles and problems invented by 'Sphinx,' the Puzzle King."—The Captain."Mr. Dudeney, whose reputation is world-wide as the puzzle and problem maker of the age ... sure to find a wide circulation ... as attractive in appearance as its contents are fascinating."—English Mechanic and World of Science."An exceedingly ingenious constructor and solver of fascinating puzzles, mathematical and otherwise."—School Guardian."A book which ought to be highly popular ... it is all mighty ingenious, and very intelligently put before the reader."—Sheffield Telegraph."It is matter for delight that Mr. Henry E. Dudeney has collected into a volume those mysterious puzzles of his which have appeared in many journals ... contains quite a number of ingenious new mental problems ... a valuable introduction."—The Lady."For the long winter evenings Mr. Dudeney's book of puzzledom is to be recommended. Mr. Dudeney has made a study of every kind of puzzle there is ... he supplies you with every kind of brain-twister."—The Daily Chronicle."Took up more of the reviewer's time than he could well afford to give it; he wanted to solve some of the curious problems that it contains, and for ingenious persons who want employment on a wet day, he promises from it abundant scope."—Yorkshire Post."A well-known master puzzler ... provides an abundance of seasonable occupation for the ingenious, with an introduction on the general question of puzzles, which is one of the most interesting parts of the book. He is a skilful inventor."—Nottingham Guardian."Will enjoy the entertainment provided ... ingenious and witty."—The Guardian."Extremely ingenious book, which abounds in problems that will keep the reader busy for hours—until in despair he turns to the answers at the end."—Manchester Guardian."The setting of these perplexities is novel ... a dramatic background being thus provided which prevents too great aridity.... The book should be much in request."—The Morning Leader.CONTENTSPREFACEINTRODUCTIONTHE CANTERBURY PUZZLESPUZZLING TIMES AT SOLVAMHALL CASTLETHE MERRY MONKS OF RIDDLEWELLTHE STRANGE ESCAPE OF THE KING'S JESTERTHE SQUIRE'S CHRISTMAS PUZZLE PARTYADVENTURES OF THE PUZZLE CLUBTHE PROFESSOR'S PUZZLESMISCELLANEOUS PUZZLESSOLUTIONS ... Read more

Product Description
Kids love exploring new ways of solving problems, especially in fun and challenging puzzle formats. In Math and Logic Puzzles That Make Kids Think, the authors present several variations on Sudoku the most well-known type of logic puzzle in an easy to use, exciting format perfect for any math classroom. These language-independent logic puzzles provide kids with great problems to stretch how they think and reason.

Each puzzle variation utilizes some of the basic strategies of Sudoku puzzles, but each one also draws upon other areas of mathematics ordering of numbers, properties of geometric shapes, basic operations, or enriched number sense. This book provides teachers with puzzles arranged by difficulty level that can be used to support and enhance students' mathematical investigations. It also provides a new and exciting context for the development of students' deductive reasoning skills, which can lay the foundation for further mathematical exploration. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Math teacher's best friend
This book should absolutely be a part of every math teacher's collection of resources.The single-solution, language-independent puzzles inside this book will enrich any curriculum by providing a fun and challenging way to learn and think critically.These incredibly rich and masterfully created puzzles will build, develop, and maintain essential deductive reasoning skills amongst solvers of any age.This book has become part of my collection and weekly routine and I strongly encourage any teacher or lover of puzzles to pick up a copy of this book and share it with everyone the know!

An Ohio Achievement Assessment God Send!
Dr. Jeffrey Wanko has published a brilliant Mathematics/Logic resource book.The four Suduko variation puzzles that Dr. Wanko presents are solved through an easy to follow, step by step process.His well made illustrations will not only help your students solve challenging and enjoying puzzles (30 of each variety at three different skill levels--120 in all); but will also hone their deductive reasoning skills.A "must have" for the gifted and accelerated teacher, these language-independent logic puzzles will challenge your students.Please realize the appeal that these puzzles present is enough to intrigue your Inclusion students as well.In addition to the printed examples in the book, Dr. Wanko also explains how to create your own variations of the puzzles.

Dr. Wanko's resource book incorporates NCTM's Standards for Grades 6-8 in the following areas:
* build new mathematical knowledge through problem solving;
* apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems;
* monitor and reflect on the process of mathematical problem solving.
* recognize reasoning and proof as fundamental aspects of mathematics;
* make and investigate mathematical conjectures;

Dr. Wanko's instruction in language-independent logic puzzles has been the focus of his presentations at the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation's Scholar Lecture Program.

A Great Book for Math Teachers or Gifted Teachers!
The Sudoku variations that Dr. Jeffrey Wanko has compiled in his book Math and Logic Puzzles That Make Kids Think will certainly provide Math and Gifted teachers with a problem solving resource that will excite and challenge their students. The variations in these puzzles mean they will never grow stale, and by reinforcing and enriching number sense ideas and deductive reasoning skills, teachers can feel confident that Dr. Wanko's book will be a valuable supplementary resource. Dr. Wanko provides clear examples illustrating how to approach and solve each of the four Sudoku variations. He also provides suggestions as to how these puzzles could be used in class, how you can make your own Sudoku variations, and answers for each of the puzzles in the book (of which there are over 100 of them).

Wonderful Resource for Math Teachers!
This book is wonderful - especially for math teachers!Not only does Dr. Wanko explain how to solve the different types of sudoku variation puzzles, at the end of each chapter, he gives a short explanation on how to create your own puzzles of that variety.He also gives background on the sudoku puzzles and offers suggestions of how to use them in the classroom.In addition, there are 30 puzzles of each variety (a total of 120 puzzles) - 10 each of three different skill levels - plus the answers provided.What a great resource for any math teacher of students grades 6 - 12! ... Read more

Product Description
The amazing story of one of the greatest math problems of all time and the reclusive genius who solved it

In the tradition of Fermat’s Enigma and Prime Obsession, George Szpiro brings to life the giants of mathematics who struggled to prove a theorem for a century and the mysterious man from St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman, who fi nally accomplished the impossible. In 1904 Henri Poincaré developed the Poincaré Conjecture, an attempt to understand higher-dimensional space and possibly the shape of the universe. The problem was he couldn’t prove it. A century later it was named a Millennium Prize problem, one of the seven hardest problems we can imagine. Now this holy grail of mathematics has been found.

Accessibly interweaving history and math, Szpiro captures the passion, frustration, and excitement of the hunt, and provides a fascinating portrait of a contemporary noble-genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

yes, he really proved it!
This is an excellent account of the history of the Poincare Conjecture, essentially a guess by one of the greatest mathematicians of all times over a century ago about shapes in multidimensional space, the subject of the branch of mathematics called topology. The Conjecture was proved true for all numbers of dimensions except 3(which strangely enough turned out to be much more difficult to prove than, say, 10 dimensions), and the 3-dimensional problem resisted solution for a long time despite the efforts of many excellent mathematicians, including some very famous ones. Eventually it was proved by a reclusive Russian mathematician, Grigori Perelman, who was not a specialist in the area but was able to make the key additional discoveries which led to the proof. He worked alone for a long time, and when he was ready he posted his proof in 3 articles on the Internet rather than submitting it to a journal. It took specialists in the field a few years to validate the proof, and there was some chicanery as one group of mathematicians decided to claim that they deserved credit for the proof by filling in the "gaps" in Perelman's articles, but the consensus eventually emerged that the "gaps" were really just an artifact of the conciseness of his presentation, and that Perelman really did prove the Conjecture. Based on that he was awarded the "Nobel Prize" in math, the Fields medal, but he refused it and the Clay Millenium Prize with its 7-figure monetary reward based on his rigid beliefs regarding what is ethical in mathematics. He then disappeared from the scene and lives quietly in St. Petersburg with his mother. It is unclear if he is still doing math. Wouldn't it be great if in a few more years he submitted the proof of another big problem, like the Riemann Hypothesis!

Needless to say the Garbo Effect is very powerful and attracted a lot of attention to Perelman and the whole subject of the Poincare Conjecture. The author does a good job of describing the math for laypersons (although I agree with one of the reviewers that a few pictures would have been helpful). The various interesting and eccentric personalities involved in the quest for the proof are described, along with the many false turns, dead ends, and embarrassing retractions over the years. For the layperson it's very interesting to see how human foibles interact with lofty abstract reasoning to create the strange and beguiling structure of modern math. Five stars.

This book needs pictures!
As others have remarked. This is a book on topology: It should be at least partially visualizable. It is practically criminal that no illustrations have been provided.

Otherwise, the book is entertaining, at least to people who have dealt with mathematicians. As one can tell from reading about all the different responses mathematicians have had on the issues of credit, prizes, fame, etc., mathematicians are an extremely diverse group. I would guess that the variance for any psychological measure among the set of mathematicians exceeds that for any other group of scientists. Even theoretical physicists are more like each other than mathematicians are.

Good, but I'm missing something ...
The book is well detailed. It describes very well all the mathematicians having been struggling with the enormous task of proving or disproving Pointcaré's conjecture. When reading, scores of these people, maybe more than a hundred of them, are coming along. So, Szpiro didn't certainly take the easy road. But, after reading his book, I still remain with an unanswered question. That is:

If there is one topic where pictures would be really, really, useful and in fact necessary to describe and explain all these tough geometrical manipulations, it would be the topic of Pointcaré's conjecture. Well, in this book there are none. Pictures could have made this book 300 percent more interesting. But none of them. Readers have to figure out themselves how a particular shape looks like when being moved from 2 to 3 dimensions, etc. For example, just take a look on Wikipedia, to see some of these wonderful shapes. For me, geometry deals with pictures. Compared to Szpiro, I don't want to call myself a writer, but I know one thing for sure. The book I once wrote on the Riemann hypothesis would have been unreadable without scores of pictures.

In Szpiro's favor I have to say the following. I got the idea he intended to add the required pictures but for some reason they never made it to the book. Probably without him knowing that. For instance, on page 169, he writes: "Take for example, the one-dimensional figure 0 as printed on this page." Well, that page, and in fact, the entire book doesn't contain any picture whatsoever. Who made the error I haven't a clue. Could even have been someone at the publisher or at the printer.

I could only suggest to Szpiro, this is a really good and interesting book. Please, issue a new revision and add the pictures every reader really wants. If so, I would be the first buyer. You did an excellent job, but you know what I'm missing. Thanks in advance.

Poincare's Prize

This is a very well written book. The Poincare Conjecture and its recently completed proof comprise the book's topic, but much of the text is biographical and historical. The conjecture concerns the topological equivalence of particular kinds of objects within a topological space. Szpiro offers us three variants of what the conjecture says (pp. 96-97):

Poincare *
(1) "Every polyhedron all of whose Betti numbers are equal to one, and which is free of torsion, is simply connected."

Modern mathematical terminology *
(2) "A three-dimensional manifold that has the same homology groups as the three-dimensional sphere is homeomorphic to it."

Colloquial, imprecise rephrasing *
(3) "Any body that contains no holes and is not twisted can be morphed into a sphere."

For contrast and a more authoritative voice, we can look on page 714 of The Princeton Companion to Mathematics *
(4) "The Poincare conjecture is the statement that a compact simply connected smooth n-dimensional manifold must be homeomorphic to the n-sphere in S^n." [where S^n signifies S with exponent n]

Mathematicians are uncomfortable with truth-claims that are not validated through proof (what would mathematics be without proof - cf. incompleteness), so even though Poincare's conjecture appeared to be true, given the topological meaning of its terminology, it was not tautologically true; and it was devilishly difficult to prove.

If you've read the New Yorker article from August 28, 2006 by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber entitled "Manifold Destiny" you know a controversy arose involving Grigori Perelman's proof and that Perelman has "issues" with the mathematics community. Although that is discussed in the book, it is not anywhere near the focus of the book. This is not, in other words, a book about Perelman disguised as a book about Poincare's Conjecture. Neither is it a book about topology, per se. Not only is topology under-represented, the reader must rely solely upon imagination to visualize the topological details discussed in the text. There are no line drawings to help. The bibliography, however, is helpful, and contains reference to books and articles, including titles in French and German.

Could we get an edition with pictures, please?
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RCS47D92UPLJV A review-turned-request for a second, illustrated edition of this otherwise fine book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Young scientist & the programmable calculator
The problems are interresting. But I didnt like the fluxograms and the programs. The fluxograms are up to date and the programs are for the TI-59. I prefer algorithms insted of fluxograms and programs. ... Read more

Product Description
Virtually every one likes to do number puzzles.Many people do not know the best ways to solve these puzzles.Here you will learn the techniques.

The number puzzle started in Japan. The famous number puzzle is Sudoku.But what is the easiest way to solve a Sudoku puzzle?The rules are amazingly simple, but most don't know them.You can learn the techniqies in minutes.Learn how to scan the puzzle quickly and use the correct numbers.

What to do when all else fails?Learn the answer in this publication. ... Read more