Do you love to read? Can you think of something you read lately that changed how you did things? Or made you feel better about something you are dealing with in your life? Like…MATH?
Kimberly Hatch Harrison (co-founder of Socratica) created this podcast to share her favourite reading experiences. Today Kim talks about her favourite part of At Sixes and Sevens by Rachel Riley and Dr. Gareth Moore
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Transcript:
Welcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. In this podcast, I’m sharing my favourite reading experiences. I’m picking out books that made an impression, that I found influential, and I’m jumping right to my favourite parts. There’s a sea of books out there - we’ll never run out of things to read and books to share with each other.
This book comes to us from across the pond. If you’re an American, especially a younger American, you may be less familiar with the pun in the title: At Sixes and Sevens. It’s a book about math, hence the sixes, and sevens, but that phrase “at sixes and sevens” means you are confused and discombobulated. Which also is the state of many people when they think about math.
This is a book from Rachel Riley, who I first saw on a quiz show called Countdown.
The Brits really have us beat when it comes to quiz shows. Do you know COUNTDOWN? Or the funny nighttime version populated by comedians, 8 out of 10 cats does countdown? Ohh, my friend, you’re missing out. Okay, first I’m going to read to you a little description from Ms. Riley’s book and I’m curious if anyone would understand how the game actually works if you haven’t seen it. There’s a letters game and then there’s a numbers game, and this is Rachel’s description of the numbers game:
(reads excerpt)
Okay, so anyway, this game Countdown is completely addictive, and an extra challenging way to play it at home is to do it without paper. I was absolutely scandalized when I heard that some people record it and PAUSE the playback while they try to solve each round. That’s okay, really, the important thing is that you’re using your brains and doing math puzzles for fun. That’s pretty amazing that people all across the UK actually do this every day. What a country.
Rachel has a co-writer for this book, Dr. Gareth Moore, who I understand supplied some of the brain teasers in the book. I know Dr. Moore as the author of the Penguin Book of Puzzles, which is a collection of riddles from throughout history - ancient puzzles like the riddle of the sphinx and things from more recent history, like Victorian and Edwardian era and the modern era. So I recommend you look for that book as well. But today I want to talk about At Sixes and Sevens, because I’m so pleased that Rachel Riley is out there doing good work with the audience she has access to.
Now this book is full of tips and tricks and simple, real-life explanations of certain math situations. The whole book is pretty useful. But the very beginning, which contains a good pep talk for improving your math, and building your confidence, is my favourite part. I’m going to read it to you now. Are you ready? Let’s begin.
{Kim reads excerpt}
Before I let you go today, I want to tell you about a new project I’ve been working on that is also intended to help people feel more comfortable with math. I think you can tell, I love puzzles and word problems, and I would really like to help people enjoy them and enjoy being good at them. So on our newest YouTube channel Socratica High we have an algebra series. I’ve been making videos for that series all about WORD PROBLEMS. I can’t tell you how many people have told me they struggle with word problems. They don’t seem to get …they’re a GAME! I’ll include a link in the shownotes.
Thanks for listening.
Socratica High Word Problems playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-VfR_4zJHyKYA7e8b2Y7B9p5CqKL35pM
