The Great Math Experience: Engaging Problems for Middle School Mathematics [Paperback]

Andrew Field (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2006 | ISBN-10: 141201509X | ISBN-13: 978-1412015097

The Great Math Experience is a collection of wonderful mathematics problems and ideas for their use in the middle school math classroom. Whether you are an experienced teacher or brand new, this book is sure to offer fresh ideas to help your students have a great math experience!

Each problem has been actually used in a real classroom.with great success. The book lists the areas of mathematics that a problem encompasses and offers advice on how to introduce it to the class. The author offers sample questions that foster deep mathematic discussions and typical student responses.

Students in grades 5 through 9 are sure to benefit from these non-traditional, fun mathematic problems, which stimulate the profound mathematical thought that educators seek.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrew Field is a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and was one of six recipients of their FLAMeS award in 2002. He has taught mathematics in five different Title I middle schools and junior high schools. He is an officer in the Army Reserve and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. A graduate of Northwestern State University, he lives in Natchitoches, Louisiana with his wife, Kate, and three daughters, Evelyn, Corinne, and Lydia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 106 pages
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing (July 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141201509X
• ISBN-13: 978-1412015097
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Resource!, November 16, 2004

By 

Math Guru "Math Guru" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Math Experience: Engaging Problems for Middle School Mathematics (Paperback)

This book is great! It's small but every single idea in it is useful. My students just don't respond well to me standing up and talking about math for the whole period. They LOVE the problems in this book and we refer back to them all the time. The water hose problem is a great problem that helps kids undestand at least a semi-practical use for adding fractions with unlike denominators. My kids had a great discussion about it and even made posters explaining their answers.
We also liked the locker problem. It's an old one that I had used before, but not to the extent that this book describes. The kids really understood factoring and the different types of numbers. Even better, the locker problem helped me (the grown up!) to answer a question on the Middle School Math Praxis, which was a killer exam! I highly recommend this book -- no wonder Harry Wong put his name on it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small but useful, September 15, 2005

By 

Sylvania "Sylvania" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Math Experience: Engaging Problems for Middle School Mathematics (Paperback)

This book is very thin, so do not expect volume (it is only 93 pages long). Instead the value here is in quality over quantity. The fifteen ideas for lesson plans presented here are great and very engaging. The author also provides an indepth analysis of each and offers extensions. Very useful and highly recommended.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good things in small packages!, May 25, 2006

By 

M. McDaniel (Arlington, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Math Experience: Engaging Problems for Middle School Mathematics (Paperback)

Don't let the size of this book mislead you. The problems presented in this book were engaging and challenging for my middle school algebra classes. Each problem has a well written explanation of the solution and extensions . I would definitely recommend this book to anyone teaching middle school math.