David E. McAdams

After 30 years of software development, David McAdams was looking for something new to do. He turned his attention to math instruction. Through his coursework at Utah Valley University, he learned how critical vocabulary acquisition is to all learning, and especially to math. Math has long been regarded as its having its own language, with its own syntax and symbols. The acquisition of this language has been found to be a barrier to many students. When approaching his teaching internship, Mr. McAdams started to extend the existing course of instruction with activities designed to help student learn the language of math. However, as he looked for resources to which he could refer his students, he found that there was certainly no single resource, and in fact no combination of resources, that students at the intermediate algebra level could use to find all the definitions they might need during coursework. While still working as a teaching intern, Mr. McAdams started to collect a list of words along with definitions useful to his students. After the completion of his internship, Mr. McAdams continued to develop this list into a comprehensive dictionary, written for middle school and high school students. "All Math Words Dictionary" is the culmination of eight years work collecting, classifying and describing all of the words a student might encounter in their studies of pre-algebra, beginning algebra, geometry, and intermediate algebra. This dictionary was developed using the four 'C's of math writing: ▪ Concise: Definitions are compact, yet understandable. ▪ Complete: All words and phrases of interest to targeted students are included, plus a few just beyond the scope of the target classes. Tables of symbols and notation, formulas, and units of measurement, plus lists of properties of objects give the student all the information needed to weld their understanding of the concepts and decipher many problems. ▪ Correct: The definitions have been thoroughly reviewed for mathematical and literary correctness. ▪ Comprehensible: The definitions are written to be understood by targeted students. Abundant illustrations aid in understanding. This book has over 3000 entries; more than 140 notations defined; in excess of 790 illustrations; an IPA pronunciation guide; and greater than 1400 formulas and equations. It is available in several editions: ▪ Deluxe Color: Uses a larger font, and larger, color illustrations. The color in the illustrations helps in understanding by separating the various elements by color. Also, most of the illustrations are color coded: red for the object being defined, green for the most closely related object, and blue for a tertiary object. ISBNs: 978‑1632700162 (Perfect bound), 978-1632700100 (hardbound) ▪ Classroom: Uses a larger font and larger illustrations for use by several students at a time. ISBNs 978‑1632700094, 978‑1632700018. ▪ Compact: Uses a smaller font and smaller illustrations for individual study. ISBNs 978‑1632700025, 978‑1523748884. ▪ Large print: Printed using a 16 point Tiresias LP font with much larger illustrations. ISBNs 978‑1632700070, 978‑1632700087. ▪ Dyslexic's: Printed using OpenDyslexic and Eulexia fonts for dyslexic learners. ISBNs 978‑1632700049, 978‑1632700056. While working on the dictionary, between playing with his grandchildren, Mr. McAdams started developing other ideas for math literacy. He noticed his preschool grandchildrens' natural interest in and ability with numbers. He wondered, how much of number theory can preschoolers understand and articulate? "Numbers", written for first and second graders began exploring these possibilities. "Numbers": ▪ Delves into the concept that numbers describe quantity: How many; How much; How long; How far.  ▪ Describes the use of counting (the basic principle of number theory) to arrive at a quantity.  ▪ Discusses that numbers can be large and small. ▪ Introduces the concept of zero. ▪ Tells how numbers can be written with digits or letters. The ISBNs for Numbers are 978-1632700575 and 978-1518886065. His own childrens' encounters with the concept of infinity not only let him know that the concept of infinity is within the reach of grade-school children, but excites their minds as they wrap their thoughts around it. Mr. McAdams wrote "What is Bigger than Anything?" (originally called "Bigger than Biggest") to bring this unbridled fun into book form. This book: ▪ Reveals that big is relative, there is almost always something bigger. ▪ Asks the question, "What is bigger than anything?" ▪ Introduces infinity as meaning bigger that anything. ▪ Brings to life Archimedes axiom stating that there is always at least one more number. ▪ Teaches that since there is no last number, numbers are infinite. The ISBNs for What is Bigger Than Anything are 978-1632700551 and 978-1518883941. Noticing that children are naturals at grouping into common groups, Mr. McAdams decided to see if the basic principles of set theory could be taught to children. He quickly realized that children inherently knew the basic concepts of set theory, only lacking the standard vocabulary. He is pleased with the success of "Swing Sets" in teaching first through third graders the basic vocabulary of sets. This book uses objects familiar to children, namely swing sets, to introduce: ▪ The definition of a set: a group of objects such that it is know if a object belongs. ▪ The process of deciding if an object is part of a particular set. ▪ The beginnings of set notation (italicized capital letters for sets, italicized lower case letters for elements of a set). ▪ What it means to be an element of a set, and the notation for elements of a set. ▪ What it means to not be an element of a set and the notation for not-elements of a set. The ISBNs for Swing Sets in English are 978-1632700186, 978-1507604359, 978-1632700193 (Dyslexic's edition), 978-1507605264 (Dyslexic's edition) At this point, Mr. McAdams took a departure from teaching tools into the arena of pure mathematical delight. While working with Fractal Forge he came up with 123 fractal images that delighted himself and many people around him, particularly children. Published under the name "My Favorite Fractals", this book is available to delight eyes young and old everywhere. The ISBNs are 978-1632700537 and 978-1518876264. While reading a book on colors to his grandson Sawyer, Mr. McAdams got to thinking how boring books about colors are for adults. Returning to teacher mode, but not math mode, Mr. McAdams, he put his mind to improving on the traditional color concept book for toddlers. "What in the natural world," he mused, "has enough of the primary and secondary colors to teach colors to children?" His answer was either frogs or parrots. Then on archive.org, he found "Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets", published in 1805 with amazing color plates of parrots. Recognizing the interest parrots would have for children, not to mention their oft-patient parents, Mr. McAdams downloaded the images, restored them, then added them to his book "Parrot Colors". Recognizing that the simplicity of the text lent itself to automatic translation, he has translated the book into 79 languages so far. Interestingly enough, the Bosnian edition has outsold the English edition. In English, this book includes a regular edition (ISBNs 978‑1632701671 and 978‑1493629930 ), a dyslexic's edition printed using OpenDyslexic font (ISBNs 978‑1632701657 and 978‑1523672059), and a large print edition using Tiresias LP font (ISBNs 978‑1632701664 and 978‑1523672417). Next, Mr. McAdams remembered how, in his youth, he found a few printouts of geometric nets and was fascinated how they folded together into complex, 3-dimensional objects. He gathered his resources and, using the free application GeoGebra (www.geogebra.org), created 79 geometric nets to cut out and tape together. This book is called Geometric Nets Project Book. It is a hands-on introduction to three dimensional geometry using geometric nets. Each net has, on its first page, instructions for putting the net together. This allows a parent or teacher to copy the net for one or more students. See the book for the full details of the copyright. The ISBNs are 978‑1632700346 and 978‑1493752232. Given the success of this book, Mr. McAdams has started on a version with tabs for easier construction. This book is expected to be finished about July 2016. When suffering from writer's block, and just for fun, Mr. McAdams has spent time restoring out-of-copyright works. Here is a list of works he as restored (author's favorites first): ▪ J. A. Flemming, Waves and Ripples in Air, Water and Æther (1902), Regular edition ISBNs 978-1632700605, 978-1453895825, Dyslexic's edition ISBNs 978-1632700667, 978-1519167026, Large print edition ISBNs 978-1632700674, 978-1519253934. ▪ Rudyard Kipling, Kim, ISBNs 978-1492292067, Dyslexic's edition 978-1492836520, Large print edition 978-1492842699. ▪ Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co, ISBNs 978-1492333784, Dyslexic's edition, 978-1492995388, Large print edition 978-1492995937. ▪ Thurmuthis Brookman, Applications of Algebra Dealing With Automobiles, ISBNs 978-1451545968 and 978-1494704940. ▪ François Levaillant, Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets (1805), Volume 1, ISBN 978-1632700476, 978-1523683109. ▪ François Levaillant, Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets (1805), Volume 2, ISBN 978-1632700483, 978-1523684274. ▪ Yen Sun Ho, Chinese Education from the Western Viewpoint, 1913, ISBNs 978-1451548822, Large print 978-1456506643. ▪ James B. Thompson, Mental Arithmetic, ISBN 978-1481866330. ▪ A. Jacobi, [Asiatic] Indian Mathematics, 1915, ISBNs 978-1451554465, Large print 978-1451559880 Warning: this books contains some racial prejudice. ▪ Harrison Weir, Drawing and Painting Book, ISBN 978-1519321657. ▪ Rudyard Kipling, The Complete Kipling, Volume 1, ISBNs 978-1453827482, 978-1523640379 ▪ Rudyard Kipling, Actions and Reactions, 1909, ISBN 978-1453741238 ▪ Rudyard Kipling, American Notes, ISBN 978-1453741306 ▪ Rudyard Kipling, Departmental Ditties, Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, ISBN 978-1453768914 ▪ Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous, ISBNs standard 978-1492291572, Dyslexic's edition 978-1492776055, Large print edition ISBN 978-1492772972. ▪ Rudyard Kipling, The Day's Work, ISBN 978-1453757451. ▪ Rudyard Kipling, A Diversity of Creatures, ISBN 978-1453826164, Large print 978-1492785545. Mr. McAdams has thoroughly enjoyed the create process of writing, and plans to continue to write far into the future. More information: Author's website: www.DEMcAdams.com Tiresias LP font: www.tiresias.org/fonts/lpfont/about_lp.htm. OpenDyslexic font: opendyslexic.org. GeoGebra: www.geogebra.org. Fractal Forge: sourceforge.net/projects/fractalforge. Archive.org: www.archive.org. Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, volume 1: https://archive.org/details/mobot31753003742951 Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, volume 2: https://archive.org/details/mobot31753003742969