Oh, the Joys of Math
A new traveling exhibit is using kids' books to make math more palatable
Staff -- School Library Journal, 7/1/2000
F
or countless folks, young and old, using math ranks right up there with getting leveled by a 16-wheeler or spending the day with Saddam Hussein.
Now, a new traveling exhibition is out to purge those foul, math-related perceptions. The exhibit, slyly named "Go Figure!," uses three- dimensional, in-teractive models based on familiar children's books, like Arthur's Pet Business, The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, to help young children and their often math-phobic parents explore the world of numbers. The exhibit is the brainchild of the Minnesota Children's Museum (MCM), with ample assistance from the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA.
"Math and literature is a wonderful combination," says Sue McCleaf Nespeca, a library consultant who specializes in early literacy. Nespeca, along with ALSC Executive Director Susan Roman and Susan Brandehoff of ALA's Public Programs Office, helped the museum select kids' books that use everyday math concepts, such as counting and sorting, in their stories. Nespeca hopes the peripatetic "Go Figure!" exhibit will create some new community-outreach possibilities for librarians. "I think there's a lot of potential for collaboration among libraries, museums, and other organizations [like Headstart] that work with young children and families," she says.
Bette Schmit, MCM's exhibit developer, says that the museum jumped on kids' stories to drive home a frequently overlooked point. "Math isn't just when you get to school, math isn't just numbers," she says. "Math happens all the time, it's all around us."
|
|
|
A kids'-eye view of "Go Figure!," an exhibit now at the Minnesota Children's Museum. This fall, the exhibit will travel to museums and libraries throughout the nation |
Supported by a $1.4-million grant from the National Science Foundation, $300,000 from Car- gill, an internation-al agribusiness, and $100,000 worth of products from 3M, Go Figure! has ample funding to last the long haul. And it'll need it. Beginning this fall, the 1,200-square-foot exhibit (now on display at the Minnesota Children's Museum) and five smaller replicas will hit the road for the next couple of years, eventually making their way to 10 museums and 75 public libraries throughout the nation. The itinerary is available at www.ala.org/publicprograms; click on "Traveling Exhibitions," then "Go Figure!"--Rick Margolis
