Book Description
As Told to and Edited by D. J. Grothe Introduction by Paul Kurtz "Does the scientist's world conform to the real one? Nature usually answers this question with an emphatic `No!' It has in fact been said that Nature delights in saying `No' and only with the greatest reluctance condescends to reveal her secrets. For this reason the scientist's life is not an easy one. However, on those rare occasions when his world does conform to the real one, and for this reason does throw light on the world around us, the rewards and the satisfactions are great and more than compensate for the many disappointments." — Herbert A. HauptmanIn this memoir of a long, distinguished career devoted to scientific research, world-renowned mathematician Herbert A. Hauptman recounts both the joys and the disappointments of his lifelong quest to induce nature to "reveal her secrets." In 1985, Dr. Hauptman received the greatest honor that any scientist can receive, when the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him and his colleague, Jerome Karle, the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Drs. Hauptman and Karle were recognized "for their outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures." This work has proved to be of the greatest importance because it relates molecular structure to biological activity, thus permitting a better understanding of life processes and making possible the development of many new disease-fighting drugs. Dr. Hauptman vividly describes the difficulties of the mathematical work that led up to his discovery as well as his joy when he finally hit upon!a method of unraveling the structure of crystals.

In addition, he provides a personal account of his background, family, his formative studies in high school and college, and the experiences that motivated him to pursue a life devoted to scientific research. A strong advocate of the naturalistic worldview and a critic of supernaturalism in any form, he reflects on the alleged compatibility of science and religion and emphasizes the importance of scientific understanding for contemporary civilization.

Complete with an appendix containing the original monograph (coauthored with Jerome Karle), which became the basis for their Nobel Prize-winning work, this fascinating and moving memoir offers important insights into the nature of scientific research and the value of the scientific outlook on life. ... Read more

Book Description

Multiply math mastery and interest with these inspired teaching tactics!

Invigorate instruction and engage students with this treasure trove of "Great Ideas" compiled by two of the greatest minds in mathematics. From commonly taught topics in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics, to more advanced explorations into indirect proofs, binomial theorem, irrationality, relativity, and more, this guide outlines concepts and techniques that will inspire veteran and new educators alike.

This updated second edition offers more proven practices for bringing math concepts to life in the classroom, including:

• 114 innovative strategies organized by subject area
• User-friendly content identifying "objective," "materials," and "procedure" for each technique
• A range of teaching models, including hands-on and computer-based methods
• Specific and straightforward examples with step-by-step lessons

Written by two distinguished leaders in the field-mathematician, author, professor, university dean, and popular commentator Alfred S. Posamentier, along with mathematical pioneer and Nobel Prize recipient Herbert A. Hauptman-this guide brings a refreshing perspective to secondary math instruction to spark renewed interest and success among students and teachers.

Customer Reviews (4)

Good Information
Some of the ideas in this book I found a tad confusing but there are quite a few great analogies and tricks to make remembering math concepts easier for students. I reccommend this book for any secondary math teacher.

Packed with ideas.
The updated second edition of 101+ Great Ideas for Introducing Key Concepts in Mathematics: A Resource for Secondary school Teachers is a 'must' for any who wish more proven classroom practices. Over a hundred strategies for teaching math are arranged by subject matter, with each listing identifying objectives, materials, and procedures. Both hands-on and computer-based approaches are detailed, with plenty of lessons and examples throughout. This comes form a mathematician/professor and a math pioneer and Nobel Prize recipient: from geometry to algebra, teachers will find it packed with ideas.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Really Great/Really Key
Posamentier has really good ideas that are helpful for high school teachers.

Great resource for teaching the underlying logic of math
This book is an excellent resource for any math teacher. Rather than focusing on the simple rules and procedures of mathematics, this book brings to light the underlying principles of why many mathematical procedures exist in the first place. I personally use this book when I want to kick my teaching up a notch and really delve into higher order thinking. I used insights from this book to get my kids to discover why math works the way it does. It is great.

One small caveat: this book is not particularly well organized in ready-to-use lesson plan format. Most of the ideas in this book need to be worked with to develop full-blown lessons. But the ideas are good enough that this is not too hard to do. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Humanist, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1402 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dissecting a breakthrough: the unexpected importance of basic scientific research in improving public health.(Reprint)
Author: Herbert A. Hauptman
Publication: The Humanist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 67Issue: 1Page: 10(3)

Article Type: Reprint

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Combinatorial Image Analysis, IWCIA 2008, held in Buffalo, NY, USA, in April 2008.

Customer Reviews (7)

Uninspired
Credit where it's due: Posamentier is entirely right in noting the creativity gap that prevails in standard math teaching, and in insisting that math can (and should be) fun/instructive/fascinating/etc.I agree entirely, and I respect Posamentier for taking the time to assemble the so-called "math charmers" in this volume.Since few of these charmers are explored in any depth, however, I cannot help but feel that the resulting collection is far too light on substance and heavy on "tidbits".As a source book for math teachers (at the elementary or middle school level), MCTTM perhaps has its uses.For readers seriously interested in the 'Queen of the Sciences', MCTTM is pretty shallow stuff.Greatly annoying, moreover, is Posamentier's constant reminder that whatever he's just described/is in the process of describing/will shortly describe is fascinating/informative/wonderful/etc.These refrains add nothing to the exposition, and become very tiresome very fast.In sum, though I have great respect for Posamentier the educator and would-be education-reformer (power to him!), I was completely uninspired by MCTTM.Similar content has been given far more incisive treatment by other authors in other publications.

This is a nice book, but...
I really like this book. It contains a high concentration of nice math demonstrations. It is appropriate for students as young as 11 or 12, although such young students might not understand all of the concepts, and it is great for high school aged students who are looking for interesting little tidbits that are different from their usual course work. It is also a good book for adults who like math.
However, it virtually identical to the author's other book "Math Wonders". It makes absolutely no sense to buy them both - they are the same nearly word for word. Amazon should not be pairing the two together in a package deal.

I'm Charmed
Math has never been my strongest subject, but this book makes it absolutely fascinating! Posamentier is engaging and delightfully charms his readers with wonderful math puzzles.This book taught me more about math than I ever expected to learn.Quite the introduction to beauty and excitement of math!

A nicely done book on math factoids and problem solving
*Math Charmers* is a nicely done book dealing with various facts about mathematics. I want to emphasize that these facts are presented in a problem-solving format (i.e., a question is posed and the solution is provided). The best way to learn about math is to solve problems, thus Posamentier's format works well in striving toward his stated goal.

Posamentier has written several excellent books on math education that, like this book, emphasizes the problem-solving approach. *Math Charmers* is his foray (I think) into the 'pop-math' genre and I think he did a fine job here.

I wanted to briefly address the one negative review thus far: Yes, it does have some sections that can be found elsewhere, but anyone can say that about any other pop-math book. So that sort of criticism in it of itself is hardly a useful (or original, ironically) observation. The real issue is whether *Math Charmers* provides any new ideas and insights as well as handling the old favorites in a useful manner. This book suceeds on both counts.

Math Charmers:Tantalizing Tidbits for the Mind
This is an outstanding book for the reader who would like to give himself a chance to really appreciate mathematics for the beauty that may not have been experienced at first encounter.The book is really entertaining and has many topics that left me with a one word reaction: WOW! I would highly recommend this book to anyone willing to appreciate mathematics, especially those who feared it in the past.It has many small but truly delightful topics that really entertained me.Frankly, I didn't want to put the book down once I got into it. ... Read more