How can I make math fun for my brother?

[Mu naught]

My younger brother is 12 years old (in 7th grade), and I'm trying to give him a sense of appreciation for math while he's still young. I want to show him that math can be enjoyable, and at the same time teach him some things he probably wouldn't learn in school.

Does anyone have any advice, or maybe some resources to help me with this?

 

[phizo]

Well you could try google
http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=maths+is+fun

Which will bring you a number of sites, however if someone does not have a natural curiosity for maths it might be hard work.
Perhaps try are to find toys and games which might help him develop a curiosity.

Again a google on "maths toys or games" might help.
You will get lots of links.

This one looks quite good.
http://www.mathplayground.com/logicgames.html

 

[stevenb]

My younger brother is 12 years old ...

Does anyone have any advice, or maybe some resources to help me with this?

Allow him to punch you in the stomach every time he gets a math problem correct.

 

[phizo]

An then hope he does not get expelled from school for punching people in the stomach

 

[bignum]

I suggest applying Math to Physics problems, that's how I got interested.

Boys love Physics

 

[tauKlav]

I liked this guy's approach to teaching maths, maybe his talk will give you some ideas.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

 

[Leptos]

There's a reason why they say "For every hour of class, spend two hours studying." Most of the time you do have to master the material outside of class, whether it be on your own, or with your peers.

 

[Mu naught]

There's a reason why they say "For every hour of class, spend two hours studying." Most of the time you do have to master the material outside of class, whether it be on your own, or with your peers.

What does this have to with my question? He's 12 years old, not in college.

 

[Count Iblis]

You can show him some spectacular results that he can easily understand. E.g., how can you efficiently calculate:

S = 1 + 2+ 3 + 4 + ...+100 ?

Of course, you can do that as follows. We have

2 S = (1 + 2+ 3 + 4 + ...+100) + (100 + 99 + 98 + ...1)

And then if you add them up as follows:

(1 + 100) + (2 + 99 ) + (3 + 98) + ...


Depending on his algebra skills, you can do this more formally, of course.


I think what may also work at this age is to slowly teach him combinatorics. You can always work with simple examples were you can do a direct counting. Like in how many ways can you put three diffrent objects in a row. If he gets that in the case of n objects it is n(n-1)(n-2)...1, which for n = 20 is a huge number that he cannot possibly cannot count to, then to him that is also a spectacular result.

 

[Jack21222]

Show him some neat facts that can be deduced from mathematics. For example, the old "start with a penny, double it every day for a month" thing. Also, calculate with him how many possible permutations there are for a deck of 52 cards.

Those kinds of thing may spark an interest

 

[thrill3rnit3]

Analyze mathematically games such as tic tac toe, bloxorz, connect four, tower of hanoi. It develops insights while at the same time it's fun.

 

[Edgardo]

Try recreational mathematics, i.e. mathematical puzzles and games.

A very good website is: http://nrich.maths.org/public/
There is a section http://nrich.maths.org/forstudents with math games

You can send him to a math camp (but of course don't force him):
http://www.umt.edu/math/camp/Recreational_Math_Camp_Registration_Form.pdf