I love books by Meg Cabot, but I have been concerned that her most popular character, Mia Thermopolis from the Princess Diaries, is a total dunce at math. I worry that teen readers will get the idea that it's ok to be bad at math.
Lo, and behold, I'm not the only person who thinks girls should get a little boost in the math department: Danica McKellar (of Wonder Years fame) has come out with a book to encourage girls to do math! "Math Doesn't Suck" helps girls conquer middle school math. It uses teen magazine hooks, like Math Horoscopes and math personality quizzes, to keep reader interest. I think it's a great idea.
In case that isn't enough to capture the hearts of of young people, how about a Math Castle?
John Fry, the founder of Fry's Electronics, is building a math palace in the bay area. It will be the new home for the American Institute of Mathematics where mathematicians convene to solve math problems. Math is often thought of as a solitary pursuit. The organization has regular gatherings to encourage solving problems as a group.
The palace will be based on the Moorish Alhambra in Andalusia, Spain. Part of the motivation for selecting the Alhambra is the many geometric shapes throughout the building and grounds. Even the Alhambra tile patterns have their own webpage.
The building is beautiful. I loved this dome ceiling shot.
One of the reasons that Islamic art has never grabbed me is that I've never seen cool paintings or drawings of heroic Muslims. I never really put two and two together until recently. They took the "Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol" commandment seriously and extended it to all portraiture of human beings. I think things loosened up over time.
Calligraphy (when you can't read the language) can only get you so far. Thank goodness for Islamic architecture. The Alhambra is really gorgeous.
I hope they open up the math palace up for tours! You can read more here. I enjoyed the end of the article that talks about curious Christians disassembling the lion clock and not getting it back together again.
1 comment:
A lot of smart or great Danica's, have to remember that name.
The patterns looks great, too bad that they are all small photos:-but of course you can knit them together with Photoshop and make a larger one for high def TVs.
I hope we can visit the Math Palace in the future.
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