Newsletter April 30, 2013

Posted on April 30, 2013 by

I am Moby Snoodles, and I love to hear from you at moby@moebiusnoodles.com

Book news

This week, the paper books will be on the way to the crowdfunder supporters and to the first buyers. I am happy with the quality of the paper, the binding, and the colors. Yes, it is great to hold this object, this physical book in your hand! Once the book arrives, please send us photos of yourselves and your kids enjoying it. We are starting a collection!

There are two translation efforts under way: Russian and Persian. If you are interested in translating the book into your language, please let me know.

We are starting to meet with parent, educator, and techie groups interested in implementing the book ideas and more. There is much hunger for advanced, playful math that children make for themselves – following their unique dreams and needs. We are working on support systems for people who pledge to this cause, so we can meet one another, and find as much resources and encouragement as needed to help the children. Everywhere we bring these ideas, there are offers of support from parents, educators, and business leaders.

If you would like us to meet with parents in your learning coop or playgroup, in person or online, let me know!

Blogs and networking

We had to make a mirror for the site, because the traffic exceeded limits several times in the last weeks. Welcome, new friends and colleagues!

Math Forum at Drexel, one of the oldest and largest math educator hubs online, included news of the Moebius Noodles book launch in its April newsletter. This is the feature icon they gave us:

It has a dragon curve on it – quite appropriate for the adventurous math! The dragon curve also goes well with our chapter on fractals. You can use it to make up other roleplaying fractal curves.

Moebius Noodles had a guest post at the Scientific American’s blog on raising science-literate kids. Here is the beginning of the post:

Children dream big. They crave exciting and beautiful adventures and they love to pretend-play. Just ask them who they want to be when they grow up. The answers will run the gamut from astronauts to zoologists and from ballerinas to Jedi masters. So how come children don’t dream of becoming mathematicians?

Kids don’t dream of becoming mathematicians because they already are mathematicians. Children have more imagination than it takes to do differential calculus. They are frequently all too literate like logicians and precise like set theorists. They are persistent, fascinated with strange outcomes and are out to explore the “what-if” scenarios. These are the qualities of good mathematicians!

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