Math Doesn't Suck: How To Survive Middle Schoool Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail

So important is math for all the other sciences...and indeed, just for living...that I am going to devote a couple of posts to books which a parent should read, in order to help their kids - and in particular their girls, with math.

Even today, in the 21st century, girls who like math begin to "lose interest" once the higher grades are reached. That is because they buy into the stereotype that girls can't handle math.

Of course they can. Unfortunately, "middle school" is the time when girls hormones start to kick in, and they start spending more time thinking about if a boy finds them "pretty" then they do about their math. And of course, by no means must they be smarter than any boy they're interested in - that's the way to lose a boyfriend right there!

(Indeed, rather than a book on math, I think girls would do better to have books on maintaining their self-esteem, ignoring the insidious mass media that permeates their lives and tells them they must be thin, they must have no spots on their face, they must have white teeth, and so on... but that's a rant for a different time.)

I don't really care for the title of this book, Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing YOur Mind or Breaking a Nail. What's "breaking a nail" got to do with it? And what's wrong with breaking a nail? We're talking about school kids here, not models in the making!






Here are the chapter titles:

Part I: Factors and Multiples Don't Suck
Chapter 1: How to make a killing on Ebay (Prime numbers and prime factorization)
Chapter 2: Do you still have a crush on him? (Finding the greatest common factor)
Chapter 3: You Can Never Have Too Many Shoes (Multiples and the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM)
Quiz #1: Are you a mathophobe?

Part II: Fractions Don't Suck
Chapter 4: Everything you wanted to know about pizza but were afraid to ask
(Introduction to factors and mixed numbers.)
Chapter 5: How many Iced Lattes can these actors drink? (Multiplying and dividing fractions...and reciprocals)
Chapter 6: When to seriously stop raiding the refrigerator (Equivalent fractions and reducing fractions)
Chapter 7: Is your sister trying to cheat you out of your fair share? (Comparing fractions)
Chapter 8: How much do you and your best friend have in common (Common denominators...and adding and subtracting fractions)
Chapter 9: Choosing the perfect necklace (Complex fractions)

Part III: Decimals Don't Suck
Chapter 10: What every savvy shopper should know (all about decimals)
Chapter 11: Why calculators would make terrible boyfriends (converting fractions and mixed numbers to decimals)
Chapter 12: How to entertain yourself while babysitting a devil child (Converting decimals to fractions)

Part IV: Percents join the party...and they don't suck, either
Chapter 13: Sale of the Century (Converting percents to and from decimals and fractions
Chapter 14: A Choreographed Performance (Mixing fractions, decimals and percents together

Part V: Word Problems Don't Suck
Chapter 15: The universal language of love...and math (Introduction to word problems and "Percent of"/"Percent Off")
Chapter 16: Does she ever get off the phone? (Ratios)
Chapter 17: The Perks of a Southern Drawl (Rates and Unit Rates)
Chapter 18: Filmmaker Extraordinaire (Proportions)
Chapter 19: Are you drinking enough water (Unit conversions)

Part VI: Even algebra Doesn't Suck
Chapter 20: Who's the Cute new foreign exchange student? (Introduction to solving for X)
Chapter 21: Romeo and Juliet: (Introduction to Solving for X In word problems)

Troubleshooting Guide: Where to turn when you don't know what to do
The Smart Girl's REsource Guide
Multiplication Tables
Answe key
Index

About the author:
Best known for her role as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years and Elsie Snuffin on The West Wing, Danica McKellar is also an internationally recognized mathematician and advocate for math education.

She also has a new book out, Kiss My Math.

http://danicamckellar.com/