[Edu-sig] Math and Python: level of difficulty

[Litvin]

At 04:12 AM 1/24/2010, kirby urner wrote:
>Back to the Litvin text, which has a lot going for it, I think it 
>might be too difficult for some of the students we're hoping to reach.
>
>Phillips Academy is one of the most prestigious, reminiscent of 
>Catlin Gabel or Oregon Episcopal in our neck of the woods (I could 
>rattle off a few more).  The text comes across as "early college" 
>i.e. college level for high schoolers, or at least as a kind of 
>advanced Algebra 2 (thinking of the chapter on polynomials in particular).
>
>It goes all the way through RSA (public key crypto) as I've 
>typically advocated we do.
>
>The good news is MFTDA (Math for the Digital Age) could be like 
>TAOCP or SICP by Abelson, Sussman & Sussman, by forming the nucleus 
>of a genre.  In additional to full blown texts, we'll perhaps see a 
>growing inventory of cyberspace assets contributed directly by 
>teachers and students?

First, let me say I am honored to have our book mentioned in the same 
paragraph with Knuth and Abelson, Sussman & Sussman. :)

Kirby is right: our book is suitable for students in a typical 
first-year discrete math college course.  That doesn't mean, though, 
that a bright middle schooler or an open-minded 9th- or 10th-grader 
can't handle it.  Unfortunately there is virtually nothing in the 
standard K-12 math that prepares students for this kind of math, 
Phillips Academy or not.  If anything, younger students are more 
enthusiastic and open to actually solving problems.  Maria (Litvin) 
recently asked her students Question 2 from Section 1.2: How many 
subsets does a set of 3 elements have, including the empty set and 
the set itself?  Her students understood what a subset is, but only 
one from the whole class could answer the question.  The others had 
no clue how to approach a problem -- any problem!  Most of these kids 
are currently enrolled in AP Calculus or a more advanced math course, 
such as linear algebra...  I suspect if you explain to an interested 
and reasonably bright 10-year-old what a subset is and ask the same 
question, chances are he/she will quickly list all the subsets and 
give you the right answer within a couple of minutes.  It is true, of 
course, that the last two chapters, the one on map coloring and the 
one on number theory and cryptology, are quite technical.  Only very 
bright students -- high school or college -- will be able to handle 
them.  But we need to somehow keep these kids busy, too, don't we?

Gary Litvin
www.skylit.com