Count Down: The Race for Beautiful Solutions at the International Math

This entry was posted by Thursday, 28 April, 2011
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DIVDIVEach summer, hundreds of seemingly average teens from around the world gather for the International Mathematical Olympiad, a chance to race the clock and one another in the quest for elegant mathematical solutions. In Count Down, the National Book Award finalist Steve Olson sets out to crack the secret of what makes these students such nimble problem solvers. He follows the six U.S. contestants from their free-time games of Ultimate Frisbee to the high-pressure rounds of the competition. In each he finds a potent mix of inspiration, insight, competitiveness, talent, creativity, experience, and, perhaps most important, an enduring sense of wonder. As he observes the Olympians, Olson delves into common questions about math culture and education, exploring why many American students dread geometry, why so few girls pursue competitive math, and whether each of us might have a bit of genius waiting to be nurtured./DIVDIVDIVKeywords:

  • Mathematical Olympiad
  • High School
  • Math Education/DIVDIVDIVSteve Olson’s Mapping Human History was a National Book Award finalist and won the Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers. Olson has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, and Science. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where he coaches the math team at a public middle school./DIVDIVDIVIntroductionbrbrOn July 4, 1974, a bus carrying eight U.S. high school students wound through the narrow medieval streets of Erfurt, East Germany.brThe students were all a bit nervous. In those days of heightened Cold War tensions, few Americans ventured beyond the Iron Curtain. Just that morning, after an all-night flight from New York City, the students had endured a brusque round of questioning by the East German border police. As they stepped out of the bus in the center of Erfurt, beneath the spires of the cathedral where Martin L?à

     
    • Category: High School Math Books
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