Bibliography: Modeling, Quantitative Literacy and Numeracy

prepared by:

Joseph Malkevitch
Department of Mathematics/CS
York College (CUNY)
Jamaica, New York 11451

Email: malkevitch@york.cuny.edu (for additions, suggestions, and corrections)


web page:
http://www.york.cuny.edu


Cohen, P., A Calculating People: The Spread of Numeracy in Early America, U. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1982. (Reprinted, Routledge, New York, 1999.)

American intellectuals such as Jefferson and Franklin promoted educating the public to be "numerate" as a way of trying to make a success of the newly created United States. Opponents of this program, many of them relying on religious arguments, questioned the wisdom of doing this.

COMAP (Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, Modeling Our World, Courses 1-4), W.H. Freeman, New York, 1998-2000.

This series of books was generated with support from the National Science Foundation and is designed as a "modeling oriented" curriculum for the 9th-12th grades of high school. The 4th volume deals with Pre-Calculus.

COMAP (Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications), For All Practical Purposes, Editions 1-7, W.H. Freeman, New York, 1988-2006. (There is a collection of 26 (half-hour) video tapes designed for use with the first edition. These constitute the telecourse, For All Practical Purposes, Annenberg Project, Corporation for Public Broadcasting.)

This book consists of five units dealing with business applications of mathematics (operations research), statistics, fairness (social choice), size and shape, and the digital revolution. The funding for this book's first edition and the associated videos came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Carnegie Foundation and the Sloan Foundations. This book is used for mathematics for liberal arts students at the college level and in some high schools as an alternative to Calculus in the 12th grade. It is also used for providing a broad mathematics background for elementary school teachers. When it first appeared, few courses with a course description that made this book a suitable choice for those courses existed. However, today there are many courses for which this text and its imitators can be used.

Gardner, M., The Colossal Book of Mathematics, W.W. Norton, New York, 2001.

Perhaps no one has done more to get the general public interested in mathematics than Martin Gardner. This is an excellent sampler of his work.

Kenschaft, P., Math Power: How to Help Your Child Love Mathematics, Even If You Don't, Pearson, New York, 2005.

This book is addressed to parents to try to break the cycle of mathophobia.

Kenschaft, P., Change is Possible: Stories of Woman and Minorities in Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 2005.

This book documents the impressive achievements of women and minorities in mathematics.

Malkevitch, J. and W. Meyer, Graphs, Models, and Finite Mathematics, Prentice-Hall, 1974.

This college text illustrates the modeling process in areas such as management science, elections (fairness problems), statistics, game theory, and ecology.

Paulos, J., Innumeracy, Vintage, New York, 1990.

This book called attention to the consequences of the general public's lacking basic insights constituting "number sense." Most of the examples were drawn from the theory of probability.

Paulos, J., Beyond Numeracy, Vintage, New York, 1991.

More examples in the spirit of Paulos' s prior book.

Paulos, J., A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, Basic Books, New York, 1995.

This book discusses the mathematical issues that underlie articles that regularly appear in newspapers.

Peterson, I., The Mathematical Tourist, W.H. Freeman, New York, 1988.

This book consists of expansions of columns that were written for Science News. Peterson is a reporter who trained himself to write in an engaging and informed way about mathematics.

Steen, L., (ed.). On the Shoulders of Giants: New Approaches to Numeracy, National Academy Press, Washington, 1990.

This book has essays on pattern, dimension, quantity, shape, and change.

Steen, L., (ed.). Why Numbers Count: Quantitative Literacy for Tomorrow's America, College Entrance Examination Board, New York, 1997.

A collection of essays surveying different aspects of numeracy, quantitative literacy, and modeling.

Steen, L., (ed.). Mathematics and Democracy: The Case for Quantitative Literacy, National Council on Education in the Disciplines, Princeton, 2001.

A collection of essays which places issues of numeracy and quantitative literacy in an historical context.

Steen, L., Achieving Quantitative Literacy: An Urgent Challenge for Higher Education, Mathematical Association of America, Washington, 2004.

A survey of issues related to colleges can become involved with meeting America's quantitative literacy needs.

Tobias, S., Overcoming Math Anxiety, Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1978. (Revised edition, W.W. Norton, New York, 1993.)

An attempt to look at and understand why so many people seem uncomfortable with learning mathematics, and, perversely, sometimes express pride in this.

Tufte, E., The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Cheshire, Graphics Press, 1983.

A compendium of information about ways to express information about data in visual form.



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