Bringing Science and Math Into Writing? 434
I am an eighth grade English teacher. As much as I love my subject and believe in the value of skillful writing, I also believe that there is a terrible lack of interest in the sciences and maths among students in general. In some sense, I believe English to be a support subject for the others classes at this grade level. At my school, the average science classroom has time for labs and note taking, but reading and writing on the subject (beside textbooks) is usually limited. Math is in a similar situation: they have time to learn a concept and practice, but not to linger on possibilities. Therefore, I have two questions for the readers of Slashdot: which books / shows / movies caused a curiosity towards these subjects when you were young, and what suggestions do you have for incorporating these subjects into writing?
Re:MacGyver (Score:2, Informative)
To take an extreme example, learning on which button to push to start a machine is not science - and never will be
Science Fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel has a nice discussion of acceleration and interplanetary distances. Arthur C Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise offers an introduction to material strengths and orbital mechanics. Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity juxtaposes gravity and centripetal acceleration.
Best piece of math/science/technical writing ever (Score:3, Informative)
I went to one of the profs in my department. He does numerical electromagnetism, so he is very good at math and CG is familiar to him. I asked him if he could recommend a "CG for dummies" book.
He told me, as a matter of fact, there is: An Introduction to the Conjugate Gradient Method Without the Agonizing Pain [cmu.edu] by Carnegie Mellon professor Jonathan Richard Shewchuk. My E&M prof said it was the best bit of technical writing he'd ever seen. I'm about halfway through, but I have to agree - though it's complicated, it's by far the most comprehensible explanation I have ever seen. It really is a perfect example of what technical writing should be like.
Not exactly when I was young, but... (Score:1, Informative)
Natalie Angier: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
If you are looking for a book that can excite a layman, like me, about science, I think this book is one you should certainly take a closer look at. In my opinion, what makes it such a nice read is that you really feel how the author is herself excited and fascinated by the things she reports on.
LIVING the maths and physics :-) (Score:2, Informative)
I wonder if the time one has - or rather the time one finds to linger on possibilities is not bound to their motivation in exploring the subject. I for one remember having done that two times, once in 9th grade (internal composition laws) and in 10th grade (2x2 matrices). Being eager to explore that really new world to me, I was writing pages and pages of exercices without anybody asking me to, just for the fun. As far as I remember, I missed deliberately "The Flintstones" once on TV because - though I loved this cartoon - I did not want to abandon the exercise I was in.
Therefore, I have two questions for the readers of Slashdot: which books / shows / movies caused a curiosity towards these subjects when you were young, and what suggestions do you have for incorporating these subjects into writing?
Books like Gamow's "Mr Tompkins" (not the recently revised vesion) and "One, two, three... infinity" aroused also my curiosity on the subject. Also, some exercises like : "You have a 10m statue on a 30m column. At which distance should you stand from the column's foot in order to see the statue with the widest possible angle ?" reminded me from time to time how maths could be a form of "super-power", allowing to do what would be either impossible or very tedious without them (well, incidentally, I chose an engineering career because of that).
Today's books on physics by Colin Bruce seem quite challenging too, but lack the technical appendixes that would be needed by those who want to go beyond the anedotic side of things to venture a little in calculus.
Finally, the is an SF novel by Normam Kagan called "The Mathenauts" which describes students exploring a mathematical space, and which is a quite accurate desciption of the feelings you have when you are doing it.
Just my two cents. Hope it can help...
Some recommendations (Score:3, Informative)
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Dancing Wu Li Masters - Gary Zukav
The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Kapra
The First Three Minutes - Steve Weinburg
Re:You're doomed (Score:2, Informative)
I had an professor who placed great emphasis on the crucifiction of the A type of students. You would be astounded at the effect of just out of the blue asking "Mr. Jones please compare and contrast Hungarian literature of the Lake Period to the literatures of Poland and Germany of the same period.". His point was that it is truly rare for two literate men to be alive at the same moment. I think he helps awaken students to have some rather lofty expectations of their efforts in your classes.
Re:You're doomed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MacGyver (Score:2, Informative)
Magic is the supernatural violation of natural law, science is the understanding of natural law. Stop pontificating.
Re:You're doomed (Score:3, Informative)
Science Fact (Score:3, Informative)
I have never understood the point of fiction, except as pure entertainment. Non-fiction is where the good stuff is. If it really has to be fiction, try Flatland [alcyone.com] by Edwin Abbott.
Re:Science fiction (Score:3, Informative)
By itself, this is not necessarily a problem. The one right answer anti-thinking philosophy permeates all education, and the more 'rigorous' the education, the more it appears to permeate. Here is where the problem exists, at least with respect to science and math. Science and math is about the discovery of fact patterns that will lead to a cause and effect. Good literature, which often involves fantasy and magical thinking, promotes the idea that cause and effect is not paramount, that magical thinking is acceptable, and that work is not required. Someone or something will save us, or we will be sold to a sports team, or the government will protect us. Occasionally good literature, like the Wizard of OZ, does promote cause and effect, but all too often such literature is ignored in favour of harry potter or Tolkien. A book, such as The Jungle, that is investigative, is uniformly represented as evil incarnate.
What science fiction often supports is cause and effect. Everything happens for a reason. There is no magic, merely advanced and strange machines. We can break the current of laws of physics, but that is because we have put those laws in a certain domain, a la newtonian mechanics, and are now working with rules that more accurately describe the universe. On a more concrete level, a la Pohl and Heinlein, we learn we can't fire the post office lady as she would have not other work, or insurance rates are a statistical process. On a more recent trend, we learn from Robinson that if our current application of science is true, we might be in for nasty climate patterns. It any of this fact. Of course not. It is presented as opinion for the reader to ponder. The only assumption is cause and effect.
And in middle school this idea of cause and effect must be made second nature to fight off the magical thinking that will be treacherous in high school. When a kid enters ninth grade the problem is not that they do not want to work. Not that they can't sit down. But they think that grades are magically given, effort has no consequence, the patterns and processes learned in math and science apply only on that day, as the rules will certainly change tomorrow. In short, their naturally tendency to believe in magic has been supported in the cause of proper literature while their developmental needs are not met.
In terms of books, just encourage the kids to read anything. I still remember that my middle school reading list was so emaciated that there were only two rational books on the list. Likewise in elementary school. How did I know this? My parents had built an awesome library for themselves and my older siblings. If they have a book on grade level, or at Lexile, let them read it. Unless one is teaching the unique kid who hates to read, but will still make it into an ivy league graduate school, we can leave the 18th century conventions behind.
In honor of the recently passed, I will recommend a Wrinkle in time, which is certainly good for children. If you can find a copy of Professor Diggon's Dragrons, that is good, but likely not for middle school. Any biography, even novelized, that illustrates the stuggle of discover, is also good.I note, for instance, that some of Edison's biographies are not good, as the stuggle is minimized, while many of Washington Carver's are.
Mentors Plus books! (Score:4, Informative)
Since studies showed how critical mentors were, NASA supports numerous programs where we mentored students ranging from annual Engineers Week where we visited classrooms at all grade levels, explaing how "cool" science and engineering concepts are and how great such careers are. Often this became the first time students had been exposed to a scientist or engineer and provided a connection with science and engineering that can be followed up on. I was also involved in mentoring dozens of high-school and college students on challenging problems making textbook learning alive - including sunmer or year-long mentorships [tec.va.us].
I'd encourage my students to get "hooked on" Feynman, Faraday (who turned on Edison) or others. who had a gift of explaning complex concepts of how our world works in a simple and intriguing fashion, like "unraveling an onion". For Example, Feynman's:
1. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) (Paperback)
2. What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character (Paperback)
3. Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character
Although books alone are NOT the answer, books, such as Feynman's, can go a long way in turning on our young people to science and engineering. Good luck on your worthy but formidable challenge so critical to our future.
Re:Science Fiction (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" also goes on at length about learning, the process of learning, how the public school system gets in the way of that, and how to get around that. That's at least as important - if not more - than any discussion of physics and math.
Joning Science and Writing (Score:3, Informative)