The Museum of Mathematics—Great Resource

The Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City is the only museum in the United States dedicated strictly to mathematics. The exhibits and programs at MoMath are designed to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity, and reveal the wonders of mathematics. Whether or not you are able to visit this fantastic museum, you can take advantage of some of its offerings.

Math Mondays is a partnership between MoMath and the magazine, Make: Online. The weekly column includes fun, experiential, puzzling topics in mathematics. Many of these are actual puzzles one can construct. This column will keep students involved with complex and innovative creations that will stretch their minds.

MoMath also has an online store that sells a variety of mathematical games, books, DVDs, toys, and puzzles that are worth considering.

Encouraging Mathematical Thinking

Parents, do you want to encourage your young people to think mathematically? Here are some ways to accomplish that.

Preschoolers

Nurturing Mathematically Talented Preschoolers—While it can be difficult to find programs for three- to five-year-old mathematically precocious children, there are things that you can do at home to encourage and feed their talents. Click on the link above and find suggestions that include

• Specific building materials, including LEGOs, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, K’nex, Magna-Tiles, tangrams, and blocks of all shapes and sizes. Ideas are also provided for using these building sets.
• Ways to use mathematical logic in everyday conversations
• Ideas for working with fractions

There is no need for formal lessons. All of the suggestions provided are applied through play activities.

Elementary School Students

10 Practically Fun Math Games and Activities for Your Preteen—While the title of this article suggests that young people be close in age to teenagers, many of these activities are appropriate for much younger children. Author JC Ryan lists eight indoor activities and two outdoor activities that parents may not automatically think of as building math skills.

Kindergarten through High School

Have You Seen These 8 High Quality, Free Maths Websites?—Activities here cater to an enormous range of abilities and offer math related subjects from basic counting through calculus, current economic theory, and puzzles.

Theme Park and Ride Design

What child doesn’t enjoy an amusement park? How many people have fantasized about creating rides and theme parks? There are many skills and abilities that go into the actual jobs required for this field, including physics, creativity, project management, art, architecture, and film. Here are some ideas for developing these interests.

Annenberg Learner has developed an interactive resource titled Amusement Park Physics. This website helps students learn the forces behind the fun. Young people find out what principals of physics make the following rides work, how the dynamics of physics control the safety of the rides, and considerations that need to be factored in by ride designers.

• Roller Coasters
• Carousel
• Bumper Cars
• Free Fall Rides
• Pendulum Rides 

Teach Engineering: Resources for K-12 has created Amusement Park Ride: Ups and Downs in Design, a lesson plan for middle school students to build and test model roller coasters using foam tubing.

If your student is interested in investigating a career in theme park and ride design, he can check out Help! I want to be a Theme Park Designer. What Do I Do Now? 13 Guidelines for Your Success.

Walt Disney Imagineering is the master planning, creative development, design, engineering, production, project management, and research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company and its affiliates. Representing more than 150 disciplines, its corps of Imagineers is responsible for the creation of Disney resorts, theme parks and attractions, hotels, water parks, real estate developments, regional entertainment venues, cruise ships, and new media technology projects. Be sure and check out the Students/Recent Grads section for information on paid internships.