Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties


Jeffrey Jensen Arnett - 2004
    Rather than marrying and becoming parents in their early twenties, most people in industrialized societies now postpone these transitions until at least their late twenties, and instead spend the time in self-focused exploration as they try out different possibilities in their careers and relationships. In Emerging Adulthood, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett identifies and labels, for the first time, this period exploration, instability, possibility, self-focus, and a sustained sense of being in limbo. An increasing number of emerging adults emphasize having meaningful and satisfying work to a degree not seen in prior generations. Marrying later and exploring more casual sexual relationships have created different hopes and fears concerning long-term commitments and the differences between love and sex. Emerging adults also face the challenge of defending their non-traditional lifestyles to parents and others outside their generation who have made much more traditional choices. In contrast to previous portrayals of emerging adults, Arnett's research shows that they are particularly skilled at maintaining contradictory emotions--they are confident while still being wary, and optimistic in the face of large degrees of uncertainty. As the demographics of American youth, the American workplace, and adulthood continue to evolve, Emerging Adulthood is indispensable reading for anyone wanting to understand the face of modern America.

Surprisingly Simple: LLC vs. S-Corp vs. C-Corp Explained in 100 Pages or Less


Mike Piper - 2008
    (And more importantly, when it will not!)Which business structures could reduce your Federal income tax or Self-Employment Tax.

Number: The Language of Science


Tobias Dantzig - 1930
    Tobias Dantzig shows that the development of math—from the invention of counting to the discovery of infinity—is a profoundly human story that progressed by “trying and erring, by groping and stumbling.” He shows how commerce, war, and religion led to advances in math, and he recounts the stories of individuals whose breakthroughs expanded the concept of number and created the mathematics that we know today.

A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science


Michael S. Schneider - 1994
    This is a new view of mathematics, not the one we learned at school but a comprehensive guide to the patterns that recur through the universe and underlie human affairs. A Beginner's Guide to Constructing, the Universe shows you: Why cans, pizza, and manhole covers are round.Why one and two weren't considered numbers by the ancient Greeks.Why squares show up so often in goddess art and board games.What property makes the spiral the most widespread shape in nature, from embryos and hair curls to hurricanes and galaxies. How the human body shares the design of a bean plant and the solar system. How a snowflake is like Stonehenge, and a beehive like a calendar. How our ten fingers hold the secrets of both a lobster a cathedral, and much more.

Kyle Finds Her Way


Susie Salom - 2016
    On the first day of sixth grade, Kyle Constantini lands in the principal's office after standing up against (that is, punching) Ino Nevarez, who was teasing a deaf girl at school. Her punishment? Join the NAVS program, which teaches constructive problem-solving (that is, not punching).Kyle loves NAVS, where her team competes in a challenge to navigate a maze. But her parents refuse to let her participate . . . so Kyle may just have to fudge the truth a bit to get around them. Then her best friend starts to crush on a cute new English boy, who seems to be interested in -- Kyle? As the NAVS competition approaches, she has to trust her instincts, take some good advice, and figure out her way through the amazing maze of middle school.Rich characters, a big heart, and a witty, warm voice make Kyle Finds Her Way a debut worth discovering.

Grading Smarter, Not Harder: Assessment Strategies That Motivate Kids and Help Them Learn


Myron Dueck - 2014
    In sharing lessons, anecdotes, and cautionary tales from his own experiences revamping assessment procedures in the classroom, Dueck offers a variety of practical strategies for ensuring that grades measure what students know without punishing them for factors outside their control; critically examining the fairness and effectiveness of grading homework assignments; designing and distributing unit plans that make assessment criteria crystal-clear to students; creating a flexible and modular retesting system so that students can improve their scores on individual sections of important tests.Grading Smarter, Not Harder is brimming with reproducible forms, templates, and real-life examples of grading solutions developed to allow students every opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Written with abundant humor and heart, this book is a must-read for all teachers who want their grades to contribute to, rather than hinder, their students' success.

Even You Can Learn Statistics: A Guide for Everyone Who Has Ever Been Afraid of Statistics


David M. Levine - 2004
    Each technique is introduced with a simple, jargon-free explanation, practical examples, and hands-on guidance for solving real problems with Excel or a TI-83/84 series calculator, including Plus models. Hate math? No sweat. You'll be amazed how little you need! For those who do have an interest in mathematics, optional "Equation Blackboard" sections review the equations that provide the foundations for important concepts. David M. Levine is a much-honored innovator in statistics education. He is Professor Emeritus of Statistics and Computer Information Systems at Bernard M. Baruch College (CUNY), and co-author of several best-selling books, including Statistics for Managers using Microsoft Excel, Basic Business Statistics, Quality Management, and Six Sigma for Green Belts and Champions. Instructional designer David F. Stephan pioneered the classroom use of personal computers, and is a leader in making Excel more accessible to statistics students. He has co-authored several textbooks with David M. Levine. Here's just some of what you'll learn how to do... Use statistics in your everyday work or study Perform common statistical tasks using a Texas Instruments statistical calculator or Microsoft Excel Build and interpret statistical charts and tables "Test Yourself" at the end of each chapter to review the concepts and methods that you learned in the chapter Work with mean, median, mode, standard deviation, Z scores, skewness, and other descriptive statistics Use probability and probability distributions Work with sampling distributions and confidence intervals Test hypotheses and decision-making risks with Z, t, Chi-Square, ANOVA, and other techniques Perform regression analysis and modeling The easy, practical introduction to statistics--for everyone! Thought you couldn't learn statistics? Think again. You can--and you will!

Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry


Ian Stewart - 2007
    In Why Beauty Is Truth, world-famous mathematician Ian Stewart narrates the history of the emergence of this remarkable area of study. Stewart introduces us to such characters as the Renaissance Italian genius, rogue, scholar, and gambler Girolamo Cardano, who stole the modern method of solving cubic equations and published it in the first important book on algebra, and the young revolutionary Evariste Galois, who refashioned the whole of mathematics and founded the field of group theory only to die in a pointless duel over a woman before his work was published. Stewart also explores the strange numerology of real mathematics, in which particular numbers have unique and unpredictable properties related to symmetry. He shows how Wilhelm Killing discovered “Lie groups” with 14, 52, 78, 133, and 248 dimensions-groups whose very existence is a profound puzzle. Finally, Stewart describes the world beyond superstrings: the “octonionic” symmetries that may explain the very existence of the universe.

Swagger: 10 Urgent Rules for Raising Boys in an Era of Failing Schools, Mass Joblessness, and Thug Culture


Lisa Bloom - 2012
    We let double the number of boys drop out of high school than girls, and of those boys who do graduate, they are far more likely than their sisters to be illiterate, to fail to go to college, or to drop out of college if they do go.SWAGGER is a wakeup call for parents about the real world our boys inhabit right now, but it offers solutions as well. From how to teach your boy humility (the swagger anti-venom), to “making your home a reading mecca,” creating an expectation of college graduation, and how to teach your boy to be critical of the media onslaught in his life, this book is also packed with research-proven, parent-tested, teacher-approved practical solutions, delivered in the author’s trademark no-nonsense, often humorous, take-charge voice.

The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta


Thomas Lin - 2018
    The stories show that, as James Gleick puts it in the foreword, "inspiration strikes willy-nilly." One researcher thinks of quantum chaotic systems at a bus stop; another suddenly realizes a path to proving a theorem of number theory while in a friend's backyard; a statistician has a "bathroom sink epiphany" and discovers the key to solving the Gaussian correlation inequality. Readers of The Prime Number Conspiracy, says Quanta editor-in-chief Thomas Lin, are headed on "breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge."Quanta is the only popular publication that offers in-depth coverage of the latest breakthroughs in understanding our mathematical universe. It communicates mathematics by taking it seriously, wrestling with difficult concepts and clearly explaining them in a way that speaks to our innate curiosity about our world and ourselves. Readers of this volume will learn that prime numbers have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow them (the "conspiracy" of the title); consider whether math is the universal language of nature (allowing for "a unified theory of randomness"); discover surprising solutions (including a pentagon tiling proof that solves a century-old math problem); ponder the limits of computation; measure infinity; and explore the eternal question "Is mathematics good for you?"ContributorsAriel Bleicher, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Kevin Hartnett, Erica Klarreich, Thomas Lin, John Pavlus, Siobhan Roberts, Natalie WolchoverCopublished with Quanta Magazine

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls


Mary Pipher - 1994
    Why were so many of them turning to therapy in the first place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and crushingly low self-esteem? The answer hit a nerve with Pipher, with parents, and with the girls themselves. Crashing and burning in a “developmental Bermuda Triangle,” they were coming of age in a media-saturated culture preoccupied with unrealistic ideals of beauty and images of dehumanized sex, a culture rife with addictions and sexually transmitted diseases. They were losing their resiliency and optimism in a “girl-poisoning” culture that propagated values at odds with those necessary to survive.    Told in the brave, fearless, and honest voices of the girls themselves who are emerging from the chaos of adolescence, Reviving Ophelia is a call to arms, offering important tactics, empathy, and strength, and urging a change where young hearts can flourish again, and rediscover and reengage their sense of self.

A History of π


Petr Beckmann - 1970
    Petr Beckmann holds up this mirror, giving the background of the times when pi made progress -- and also when it did not, because science was being stifled by militarism or religious fanaticism.

Horace's School: Redesigning the American High School


Theodore R. Sizer - 1992
    A plan for school reform that respects the best traditions of secondary schooling and urges us to do far more in preparing adolescents for the future.

Push Has Come to Shove: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve--Even If It Means Picking a Fight


Steve Perry - 2011
     In this book, his priority is to help kids who don’t have the advantage of going to his school, Capital Prep.  He wants to save your kid, and the kid next door, and the kid down the street from getting a typical third-rate American education.  If you’re a parent who has worried recently about how depressed your child seems when he dresses for school in the morning…or how little of what happens during the school day seems to sink into her brain… or how much of your child’s homework is busywork, you need this book.   If you’re a teacher who is putting your heart and soul into the job but are surrounded by colleagues who are “phoning it in,” you need this book.  If you’re a committed, forward-thinking principal who wants to get rid of the faculty bad apples, but are continually stymied by Mafia-style teachers-unions, you need this book. *If you’re a citizen who worries about the $1 trillion-plus GDP loss that America suffers every year because our system of education doesn’t measure up, you need this book. In this solution-oriented manifesto, Steve Perry covers the full range of issues holding back today’s students.  He shows parents how to find great teachers (and get rid of the bad ones)…how to make readers out of kids who hate to read…how to make the school curriculum thrilling rather than sleep-inducing…how to conduct an all-important education “home audit”… how to “e-organize” if school boards and administrators aren’t getting the message…how to build a “school of the future,” and much more. The era of third-rate education is over.  Steve Perry isn’t going to let the fools and scoundrels get away with it any longer.  Push has come to shove!

Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School


C.J. Pascoe - 2007
    Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school, Dude, You're a Fag sheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approach analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one. She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality.