Bringing Science and Math Into Writing?

I am an eighth grade English teacher. As much as I love my subject and believe in the value of skillful writing, I also believe that there is a terrible lack of interest in the sciences and maths among students in general. In some sense, I believe English to be a support subject for the others classes at this grade level. At my school, the average science classroom has time for labs and note taking, but reading and writing on the subject (beside textbooks) is usually limited. Math is in a similar situation: they have time to learn a concept and practice, but not to linger on possibilities. Therefore, I have two questions for the readers of Slashdot: which books / shows / movies caused a curiosity towards these subjects when you were young, and what suggestions do you have for incorporating these subjects into writing?

Comments

Re:MacGyver

[Anonymous Coward]

I am afraid McGyver is the worst example to give to children, because that series uses more or less science as a kind of magic, used to solve problems. Let us remember that science is essentially about how and sometimes why things work, not that much about what you can do with them, which is the domain of technique or - if the technique is successful on a large scale - hopefully technology.

To take an extreme example, learning on which button to push to start a machine is not science - and never will be :-( .
 

Science Fiction

[SQL Error]

You have to be careful with your selection, though, because a lot of what passes for SF these days is My Talking Pony stories and/or porn.

Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel has a nice discussion of acceleration and interplanetary distances. Arthur C Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise offers an introduction to material strengths and orbital mechanics. Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity juxtaposes gravity and centripetal acceleration.

Re:Science fiction

[fermion]

Let me expand on this. Science fiction often is not used in schools as it is not written to the literary standards of academia. English often appears to be primarily concerning the promotion of a certain standard rather than the promotion of critical thinking. For instance, when on reads a passage there is but on interpretation, and if one does not interpret the passage as such, and bubble in the correct answer, you do not graduate.

By itself, this is not necessarily a problem. The one right answer anti-thinking philosophy permeates all education, and the more 'rigorous' the education, the more it appears to permeate. Here is where the problem exists, at least with respect to science and math. Science and math is about the discovery of fact patterns that will lead to a cause and effect. Good literature, which often involves fantasy and magical thinking, promotes the idea that cause and effect is not paramount, that magical thinking is acceptable, and that work is not required. Someone or something will save us, or we will be sold to a sports team, or the government will protect us. Occasionally good literature, like the Wizard of OZ, does promote cause and effect, but all too often such literature is ignored in favour of harry potter or Tolkien. A book, such as The Jungle, that is investigative, is uniformly represented as evil incarnate.

What science fiction often supports is cause and effect. Everything happens for a reason. There is no magic, merely advanced and strange machines. We can break the current of laws of physics, but that is because we have put those laws in a certain domain, a la newtonian mechanics, and are now working with rules that more accurately describe the universe. On a more concrete level, a la Pohl and Heinlein, we learn we can't fire the post office lady as she would have not other work, or insurance rates are a statistical process. On a more recent trend, we learn from Robinson that if our current application of science is true, we might be in for nasty climate patterns. It any of this fact. Of course not. It is presented as opinion for the reader to ponder. The only assumption is cause and effect.

And in middle school this idea of cause and effect must be made second nature to fight off the magical thinking that will be treacherous in high school. When a kid enters ninth grade the problem is not that they do not want to work. Not that they can't sit down. But they think that grades are magically given, effort has no consequence, the patterns and processes learned in math and science apply only on that day, as the rules will certainly change tomorrow. In short, their naturally tendency to believe in magic has been supported in the cause of proper literature while their developmental needs are not met.

In terms of books, just encourage the kids to read anything. I still remember that my middle school reading list was so emaciated that there were only two rational books on the list. Likewise in elementary school. How did I know this? My parents had built an awesome library for themselves and my older siblings. If they have a book on grade level, or at Lexile, let them read it. Unless one is teaching the unique kid who hates to read, but will still make it into an ivy league graduate school, we can leave the 18th century conventions behind.

In honor of the recently passed, I will recommend a Wrinkle in time, which is certainly good for children. If you can find a copy of Professor Diggon's Dragrons, that is good, but likely not for middle school. Any biography, even novelized, that illustrates the stuggle of discover, is also good.I note, for instance, that some of Edison's biographies are not good, as the stuggle is minimized, while many of Washington Carver's are.

Re:Science Fiction

[edunbar93]

Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel has a nice discussion of acceleration and interplanetary distances.

Actually, "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" also goes on at length about learning, the process of learning, how the public school system gets in the way of that, and how to get around that. That's at least as important - if not more - than any discussion of physics and math.

Best piece of math/science/technical writing ever

[Raul654]

Slightly off-topic, but tangentially related to TFA: I'm in the process of writing my masters. I'm doing it on the NAS Conjugate Gradient (CG) benchmark to several exotic architecture. Now for those of you who haven't heard of CG, it's a very-commonly-used but extremely complicated algorithm. I wanted to have a section in my masters explaining how CG works, only I hit a snag - all of the explanations SUCK. I mean, REALLY SUCK.

I went to one of the profs in my department. He does numerical electromagnetism, so he is very good at math and CG is familiar to him. I asked him if he could recommend a "CG for dummies" book.

He told me, as a matter of fact, there is: An Introduction to the Conjugate Gradient Method Without the Agonizing Pain by Carnegie Mellon professor Jonathan Richard Shewchuk. My E&M prof said it was the best bit of technical writing he'd ever seen. I'm about halfway through, but I have to agree - though it's complicated, it's by far the most comprehensible explanation I have ever seen. It really is a perfect example of what technical writing should be like.

Not exactly when I was young, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

About a month ago I read an awesome popular science book that I simply have to recommend here:

Natalie Angier: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

If you are looking for a book that can excite a layman, like me, about science, I think this book is one you should certainly take a closer look at. In my opinion, what makes it such a nice read is that you really feel how the author is herself excited and fascinated by the things she reports on.

LIVING the maths and physics :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Math is in a similar situation: they have time to learn a concept and practice, but not to linger on possibilities.

I wonder if the time one has - or rather the time one finds to linger on possibilities is not bound to their motivation in exploring the subject. I for one remember having done that two times, once in 9th grade (internal composition laws) and in 10th grade (2x2 matrices). Being eager to explore that really new world to me, I was writing pages and pages of exercices without anybody asking me to, just for the fun. As far as I remember, I missed deliberately "The Flintstones" once on TV because - though I loved this cartoon - I did not want to abandon the exercise I was in.

Therefore, I have two questions for the readers of Slashdot: which books / shows / movies caused a curiosity towards these subjects when you were young, and what suggestions do you have for incorporating these subjects into writing?

Books like Gamow's "Mr Tompkins" (not the recently revised vesion) and "One, two, three... infinity" aroused also my curiosity on the subject. Also, some exercises like : "You have a 10m statue on a 30m column. At which distance should you stand from the column's foot in order to see the statue with the widest possible angle ?" reminded me from time to time how maths could be a form of "super-power", allowing to do what would be either impossible or very tedious without them (well, incidentally, I chose an engineering career because of that).

Today's books on physics by Colin Bruce seem quite challenging too, but lack the technical appendixes that would be needed by those who want to go beyond the anedotic side of things to venture a little in calculus.

Finally, the is an SF novel by Normam Kagan called "The Mathenauts" which describes students exploring a mathematical space, and which is a quite accurate desciption of the feelings you have when you are doing it.

Just my two cents. Hope it can help...

Some recommendations

[davecl]

Science fiction in general is good, but there are some very good non-fiction books out there as well. Suggestions, possibly for a somewhat older age group, would be:

Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter

The Dancing Wu Li Masters - Gary Zukav

The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Kapra

The First Three Minutes - Steve Weinburg

Re:You're doomed

[b4upoo]

English is a lofty goal in and of itself. Sadly very few students will ever have a clue as to the power or beauty of English no matter what you do. Going from a natural language to push them toward the formal languages, mathematics, chemistry and physics would actually degrade your purpose. There will be other teachers for those language arts.
                      I had an professor who placed great emphasis on the crucifiction of the A type of students. You would be astounded at the effect of just out of the blue asking "Mr. Jones please compare and contrast Hungarian literature of the Lake Period to the literatures of Poland and Germany of the same period.". His point was that it is truly rare for two literate men to be alive at the same moment. I think he helps awaken students to have some rather lofty expectations of their efforts in your classes.

Re:You're doomed

[DansnBear]

Would that math show happen to be Square One http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_One_(TV_series ) ?

Re:MacGyver

[The One and Only]

Just a while ago there was an article on Slashdot, describing how stem cells have been used to fix damaged spines in rats. Making the paralyzed walk again is a miracle straight from the Bible; if that isn't good enough for you to qualify science as "magic", then just what does it take ? Huh ?

Magic is the supernatural violation of natural law, science is the understanding of natural law. Stop pontificating.

Re:You're doomed

[smallfries]

You may want to investigate the relevation that different people have different opinions, and that getting a +5 insightful mod doesn't make you authoritative.

Science Fact

[Hatta]

Why science fiction, why not science fact? How about a book like "One, Two, Three... Infinity" by George Gamow? Or anything written by Martin Gardner? How about Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos? Or Max Born wrote a book, "Einstein's Theory of Relativity", which explains relativity in great detail with nothing more than pre-algebra. Or for the computer nerds, the obligatory recommendation is "Godel Escher Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter.

I have never understood the point of fiction, except as pure entertainment. Non-fiction is where the good stuff is. If it really has to be fiction, try Flatland by Edwin Abbott.

Mentors Plus books!

[olafva]

NASA has a related goal of stimulating interest in Science and Engineering. I recall briefings with data showing it was very unlikely for someone to enter studies and careers in "hard" sciences or engineering without a mentor they respected in such a career. Students are unlikely to pursue such a career "by accident" as it takes careful planning (prerequisites), curiosity, persistence and a passion and thirst for knowledge. For me it was my clever MIT EE trained uncle who enjoyed demonstrating explaining and asking fundamental and challenging questions at our lake cabin.

Since studies showed how critical mentors were, NASA supports numerous programs where we mentored students ranging from annual Engineers Week where we visited classrooms at all grade levels, explaing how "cool" science and engineering concepts are and how great such careers are. Often this became the first time students had been exposed to a scientist or engineer and provided a connection with science and engineering that can be followed up on. I was also involved in mentoring dozens of high-school and college students on challenging problems making textbook learning alive - including sunmer or year-long mentorships.

I'd encourage my students to get "hooked on" Feynman, Faraday (who turned on Edison) or others. who had a gift of explaning complex concepts of how our world works in a simple and intriguing fashion, like "unraveling an onion". For Example, Feynman's:

1. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) (Paperback)
2. What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character (Paperback)
3. Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character

Although books alone are NOT the answer, books, such as Feynman's, can go a long way in turning on our young people to science and engineering. Good luck on your worthy but formidable challenge so critical to our future.

Joning Science and Writing

[Descalzo]

If you just want a neat writing activity involving writing and any subject at all (I've seen it done in geography and science, and I used it myself in an art/social studies lesson), you might want to try a GRASPS activity. Here is a page that describes how to think up a GRASPS activity. I learned it from a guy who uses these activities as performance assessments in 8th grade Geography. I'm going to try to incorporate one into a math activity this year. If you need suggestions, or if that link isn't very helpful, let me know.