Bob Klein - Böcker

The people of the Navajo Nation know mathematics education for their children is essential. They were joined by mathematicians familiar with ways to deliver problems and a pedagogy that, through exploration, shows the art, joy and beauty in mathematics. This combined effort produced a series of Navajo Math Circles--interactive mathematical explorations--across the Navajo Reservation.This book contains the mathematical details of that effort. Between its covers is a thematic rainbow of problem sets that were used in Math Circle sessions on the Reservation. The problem sets are good for puzzling over and exploring the mathematical ideas within. They will help nurture curiosity and confidence in students.The problems come with suggestions for pacing, for adjusting the problems to be more or less challenging, and for different approaches to solving them. This book is a wonderful resource for any teacher wanting to enrich the mathematical lives of students and for anyone curious about mathematical thinking outside the box. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession.

Highlights innovative partnership practices that help create educational opportunities for students in rural schools across the United States.As editors Sarah L. Hartman and Bob Klein acknowledge, rural places have long experienced systemic inequities that decrease rural students' access to education, yet many rural schools and communities have found creative means to make up for the dearth of outside resources. The Middle of Somewhere brings to light a wide variety of partnerships that have been forged between K–12 schools, communities, and postsecondary institutions to improve educational access.The book showcases collaborations that address three different areas of need: partnerships that prepare and support teacher candidates and educators who work in rural areas; partnerships that extend the work of rural education networks; and partnerships that promote equity, justice, and inclusion within rural populations. Using case studies of rural educational partnerships from communities across the United States, the book's contributors share their experiences of how strong partnerships have formed both organically and through thoughtful and intentional planning, and they recommend supportive strategies for their development and sustainment.The contributors also explore the many ways in which university–school–community partnerships incubate solutions to challenges common to rural education systems, such as access to STEM education and higher education. The programs featured here may serve as replicable models for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers who want to enrich the experiences of children in their schools and communities.