Translate Don's pages into your language (also use the translator, the A in the upper right on any of Don's pages).
"Learning, Living and Loving mathematics.."- the core of Don's teaching and books,
observed by Seth Nielsen (see LOVE YOUR BOOK below).
The above is a copy of Don's watercolor painting of The
Nautilus shell; it is Don's logo. The shell is beautiful, its shape a mathematical curve,
and can be obtained from conchking. Also see the equation for the shell ,
making
a spiral , IES
java applet making a Nautilus, Xah
Lee's work on spirals (and other curves) and student work
on the growth of the Nautilus (chapter 6), and Don compares the Spirals of the Nautilus
shell, the Fibonacci numbers, and the Equal Tempered Chromatic Music Scale .
ようこそ; WELCOME
! عَلَى
الرُّحْبِ
والسَّعَة ;
환영받는;
ˇbienvenido a casa!;
迎; hoan nghęnh; karibu!; aa'o bhagat karna;
Willkommen; Selamat Datang; Aapka swagat hai; Sawasdee Krub; kumusta, ; Makati,
Phililppines; New Delhi, India;
Shinjuku, Japan; La Crosse, WI; Champaign, IL; Gardendale, TX; 2 CD set to
Maylasia; 2 CD set to Singapore; Leicester, UK; Bangkok Thailand, 21
visitors/month averaging 1 hr 53 min on Don's
site- a record!; London, ON,
Canada; ..and all the world.
During
15 Nov.-15 Dec. 2009,
at least 1
person came from every state in the US
to Don's website; the most came from
Illinois with 175.
Over 1500 people
from 70
countries around the world,
came to Don's website, as shown in Google
Analytics.
Click to give free food on the Hunger Site.
Refreshing insights into the learning and
doing of some important mathematics, by young people (while doing lots
of arithmetic, using many hands-on materials, science to
math activities, and the non-trivial use of calculators and computers)-- for
children, as well as adults.
Don assumes only that a student can count.
Don's keys:
visualization,
look for patterns,
learn to learn
Excellent math instruction for K-12, and all
abilities - for 34
years!
prepare for UNI (SSAT), SAT+1&2, ACT, AP Calc, GED,
GRE, Nursing TESTS.
Adults, parents, and teachers,
are also welcome to come to learn mathematics.
Sheri gives you a great reason to have your
daughter/son work with Don during the summer:
Don had
Sheri as a 4-6th grader; then she went to University High School. She came back
as a 12th grader, in the Summer of 2008, to prepare for Calculus. Don worked with her for
3 weeks before school started. Today, a week into her calculus class,
she told Don- "What we did the last 3 weeks (derivatives), the teacher
did with my class in one day, and I was like the only one in the class that
understood what she was talking about! It really helped for me to talk with you
about the problems as I worked on them".
Call
today,
Don Cohen 217.356.4555
email
Don today at doncohenmathman@gmail.com
Don's address:
809 Stratford Dr. Champaign, IL 61821-
4140
Don is now accepting a limited number of students from afar, to come to
Champaign to work with him on
his Calculus For Young People program.
The week of August 9 has been taken, by a young man coming from SC.
Don is also accepting a limited number of students
to work in his
"All that is needed for the Triumph of Evil
by chapter!
Help your children- move ahead; understand math much better; learn
not to fear math; build their confidence; find patterns; enjoy thinking about
mathematics; find different ways to solve a problem; multiply 12x13 in their
head; dispel math myths (like you can't divide a smaller number by a larger
number); bring out the math they didn't know they could do; invent new ways to
do math that the teacher had never seen; learn math games (like Nim, Sprouts,
The Tower Puzzle, +); get better grades; get an early start on fractions, algebra,
geometry, trig, and calculus (ages 7 and up!);
Jonathan, at ages 7 and 8, came from Connecticut
for a week, each of 2 summers. He worked on infinite series, solving quadratic equations
(Ch. 8)++, is in Don's videos and in Don's worksheet book. Jonathan
is now in his final stage of getting a Ph.D. in physics at U of Rochester ( and
Cornell).
Calculus By and For Young People-Worksheets book with him, via email.
is that Good people do Nothing".
- Edmond Burke ( 1729-97 ), British writer, politician, lawyer
You can now choose from a topic on Don's "A Map to Calculus"
, click on it, and find student works and discoveries, and sample problems from Don's books on the topic.
Very exciting!
Order Don's 2 CD set with all his materials, @$70.95,
via Google Checkout or PayPal Checkout below or money order.
Note: Shipping is FREE in the US (IL add 8% tax).
To ship outside U.S. email Don for S&H
Google Checkout
PayPal Checkout
 |
Exciting news- all the time!
10 June 2010 Our
granddaughter Tara and fiancee Tyler, won "favorite commuter/travel biking blog"-
at http://www.goingslowly.com .
Congratulations guys! We are proud of your fine work and hard bicycling around
the world. They are in Lithuania as of this date.
It's been a pleasure working with
you Sheri, as well as your sister, your mother, 2 aunts, and 2 cousins over the
years- what a wonderful family! On
this day 6 June
2010, Don & Mrs. Cohen met Sheri, on the
way out of a restaurant where she was working. It was great to see her. She will
be a sophomore at the U of Michigan in the Fall, loving it, majoring in
Neuroscience, and aims to be a doctor! Her sister Amanda whom Don also worked
with, will be a senior at the U of CA, San Diego, and is planning to go to law
school. Besides seeing his own
children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren grow up, it's also a pleasure
seeing his students grow up. Especially when he has had their children- one
helped Don set up his website and one, Jonathan, has helped make his A Map to
Calculus clickable! Don feels very fortunate to have positively affected so
many young people. Mrs. Cohen has been the greatest supporter of his work and
the love of his life for the last 57 years.
21 May 2010 David,
an 7th grader, is very good at figuring out hard functions (we've played a lot
of Guess My Rule lately, instigated mainly by Jerry, Anna, and David). Don asked
him how he did this. He announced to Don today that he had a way of doing it-
his "Rule Killer" or how he can come up a function from about 7 pairs
of numbers! He is presently writing this up for Don to understand and the
world.. Stay tuned. 19
May 2010
From the Mom of Don's student from
NZ, many years ago, on
facebook: "Hi Don, It was William you taught calculus to. How he loved your
classes! He is now grown up (mostly) and doing very well working in IT. Best
wishes"
Don had
Sheri as a 4-6th grader, then she went to University High School. She came back
as a 12th grader, in the Summer of 2008, to prepare for Calculus. Don worked with her for about
3 hrs. individually over the last month before school started. Today, a week into her calculus class,
she told me "What we did the last 3 weeks (derivatives), the teacher
did with my class in one day, and I was like the only one in the class that
understood what she was talking about! It really helped for me to talk with you
about the problems as I worked on them".
2 June 2010 Congratulations
Lori Johnson Morse!! Her new, fine,
Wolfram Mathematica Demostrations Project submission: ChangeTheDogMatrixTransformations
has been accepted for publication.
It does the matrix transformations
Don has in his book Changing Shapes With Matrices, in a new way!
17
May 2010
an
email to Don:
Dear
Don,
I was a student of yours about ten years ago. I just wanted to send you a
little note to let you know that I still very often use the most important
lesson that you taught me: when a problem is too difficult, first think of
an easier case of the problem and work from there.
I am now a student at the California Institute of Technology, studying
Chemistry. I very much enjoyed working with you when I was younger, and I
don't recall whether I ever really got to thank you, so I wanted to make
sure that I did that.
Thanks,
Geoffrey
Don was so pleased to hear from Geoffrey. See his work at Geoffrey, age 11, graphs the 6 trig functions , Geoffrey generalizes the infinite series, Geoffrey works on powers of powers, Geoffrey worked on the Fibonacci numbers. Search Geoffrey, above to see other fine things he did.
Time lapse here due to Don working on his MAP
1 January 2010 An email to Don from Japan
Dear Don and Marilyn,
Hello! How are you? I didn't have a chance to visit you
last summer, but I hope I can soon
I hope that both of you will have a
Happy
New Year
These are some pictures of my dog Fluffy, and I!! Did you
recognize that your painting was in one of the pictures
?Love,
Nanako
-Nanako came to work with Don for
a week in the summers of 2007 and 2008! See her work at www.mathman.biz/html/nanako.html
, www.mathman.biz/html/nanakograph.html
andwww.mathman.biz/html/nanako08.html
It was a beautiful ceremony.
19 December 2009 From a holiday card: Dear Don, The boys (and I!) have learned a lot this year and are looking forward to more math in the New Year! We are blessed to have you in our lives.
- Shawna N. [the Mom]
3 November 2009 Anna
L., a 4th grader, does some fine mathematics
1 November 2009 Don
has worked on math for 9 years with Jay, now a HS Jr. Don and his wife Marilyn were invited to
Jay's Vedic ceremony
BRAHMOPADESHEM, celebrating a period of education or preparation for life. In
the photo below, his father, considered the ultimate guru, imparts the "secret" of the Gayathri
Mantra to his son Jay, with the help of the Priest.
25 October 2009
an email to Don, used with permission:
RE:
Mathematics - See what an Educator and young students can produce!
FYI
– I’m forwarding email sent to me by Don Cohen about his students’ recent
work
[ Van & Jack below].
Don wrote Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and up) .
I’ve known Don since the early 1990s, and I have used his materials in my
classrooms.
· If
you are a young person, studying mathematics with Don Cohen is a great
investment. · If
you know a young person, point them to study mathematics with Don Cohen-- a
great investment. · If
you are an educator – Don Cohen is a great mentor and a really nice guy. -
from
Dr. Debbie Denise Reese, the senior educational researcher at the NASA-sponsored
Classroom of the Future (COTF) within Wheeling Jesuit University’s Center for
Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV Notice that the piece above the
diagonal orange
line in the tall rectangles, equals the area below the orange
line above the square to its right. Notice also that the length of the base
of the orange
triangle = 2/5 + 2/5 + (2/5)2 + (2/5)2 + (2/5)3
+ (2/5)3 +(2/5)4 +(2/5)4
... = 2*
[2/5 + (2/5)2 +
(2/5)3 + (2/5)4 +
...]. The
area within the orange
triangle = (1/2)(base
x
height)
= (1/2)(2x
[2/5 + (2/5)2 + (2/5)3 + (2/5)4
+ ...])x1=
2/5 + (2/5)2 + (2/5)3 + (2/5)4 + ... ,
the sum of the infinite series whose limit is 2/3. This is also 1/2x4/3x1=
2/3 and also 2/(5-2) = 2/3. This last one comes from doing lots of series and
students generalizing A/B + (A/B)2 + (A/B)3 + (A/B)4 +
... -> A/(B-A).
Below you can see Lori Johnson
Morse's applet for this, made in GeoGebra. "Love your book Hi
Don,
-- Seth Nielson [See www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
for Lockhart's article "A
Mathematician's Lament".] [Don
thinks Seth really understands what Don's book is about! -and a second linking
of Paul Lockhart's article and Don's works in 2 months. Check out his blog-
a real math teacher in the making. Thank you Seth.] 11 August 2009
Guess who came to visit with Don and his wife?
Yes Kirsten, who
was 8 yo in this picture, which is on the back cover of Don's Worksheet Book.
Don worked with Kirsten from age 4 when she was at The Montessori School of C-U,
through age 15 at UNI high (when she got a 5 on her AP Calculus test). She is
now about 28 yo, having graduated form U of Munich (in German!) a couple of years ago, and is
now teaching German and English in Beijing, China and engaged to be married next
year. Check
out @TheMathman website,
esp example probs. Could his method be one answer to The Mathematician's Lament
(see
Paul Lockhart's 25 page paper
on
math education)? [WOW!!
Thank you Freeman].
Dear
Don,
4
June 2009 Just
so you know that Don is not perfect.
From
a note to Don from one of his mothers: Mr. Cohen, Could you work on some basics
with Sarah. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, counting money, and
word problems. She still got a C-
in Math.. Thanks, Frances C. [Sarah is
continuing to work with Don through part of the summer].
I hope you have a
good summer, and I know the kids look forward to seeing you again in the fall.-
Charles
You
have made a huge difference in Joe’s life! Certainly his confidence and
skills in math have increased- but your (and Marilyn’s) influence goes beyond
that. You model for him an attitude and approach to life that he very much
admires. I believe it really does “take a village” to raise a child. I feel
mighty good that you both are part of Joe’s “village”- that you have been
a part of all of our children’s village. Thank you! Bernadette
from: Maria
Droujkova<droujkova@gmail.com> subject:
Changing Shapes With Matrices - in the Math Clubs! This
is an activity designed by Don Cohen-The Mathman, in his book "Changing
Shapes with Matrices." You can find some sample book problems here, and
follow links to other Don's materials:
http://www.mathman.biz/html/probcswm.html …Kids
could quickly test conjectures, such as: "What makes the shape flip? How
can you stretch the shape more? What happens if you put opposite numbers in the
matrix? Reciprocal fractions? Zeroes?" This was some excellent math by kids
- the reason I love this activity so much. …We
did some very meaningful math and had a lot of fun with the activity. Don, thank
you very much for your wonderful books, full of great activity ideas. For Maria’s
complete article, go to
http://groups.google.com/group/naturalmath
Thank
you Maria, for sharing this activity with your google group. Dear Don, ..Ashley
received her letter of acceptance into the Radiology Program at
Michael is really enjoying your calculus
worksheets. Thanks again!! Sincerely, Theresa (WI)
Subject: Thank You!
I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you how much my girls and I have enjoyed your math program. Last year we bought the Calculus program at our home school convention, and my girls have not put it down since. They are so excited about math and it has become their favorite subject.
Thank you so much!
Julie, GA
Thank
you Julie, for sharing this wonderful information!
Michael made the diagram at the right below,
using an angle of 60o
between the mirrors,
and proceeded to show the path of the
light rays as they leave the red rod, bounce off the mirrors (the angle of
incidence equals the angle of reflection) and to go to the eye, He found the 6 images
(5+original=6); and they all lie on the same circle! Fine job Michael!!
The Nautilus Shell
applet done by Lori and
Don - you need to download free, geogebra Area
of triangle= limit of infinite series, applet done by Lori and
Don - you need to download free, geogebra
The difference
of 2 cubes (Maggie, 9 years old, builds a box..and does some algebra)-
applet done by IES in Japan- upon Don's recommendation
(a+bi)^(a+bi)^ ... applet done by IES in Japan,
inspired by Don's problem of i^i^i... in his Worksheet Book, Chapter 11 -IES
as usual, did a great job with this, ending up with fractals!
Dear
Mr. Cohen Thank you for
being a teacher and an example to Elizabeth and other kids in math and in
life. Pat
There were 89
rows in the one direction and 55
rows in the other direction, both Fibonacci numbers, including 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,
13, 21, 34,
55,
89, 144, ... see the pattern? See the
sample problems
from chapter 7 in Don's worksheet book and you'll find that Don has his students
use the
infinite sequence of the Fibonacci numbers to get the ratios of
these. They are working with infinite sequences, ratios, fractions, mixed numbers, division,
decimals, infinite repeating decimals and finding patterns. The infinite sequence of
ratios has a limit which turns out to be The
Golden Mean or Don's
son Brian made a beautiful, wooden 3-D diorama for the story written by Don's
granddaughter Tara, for her UNI HS geometry class, at age 15, entitled A
Quest For The Sacred Golden Pineapple, Pine Cone and Artichoke. The
diorama includes 1.) a
figurine of The Old Mathman holding a golden pineapple, made by Tara, within a
dome, 2.) a watercolor painting by Tara and Don of The Old Mathman's house in
the woods, and 3). a shelf underneath with a copy of Tara's story. Hi Don,
For ages I have been
thinking about getting in touch with you - and hope that this e-mail address
still works. I'm not sure that you'll remember Andy from about 12-13 years ago,
but if you do I thought I'd give you an update. He graduated from U of I with
majors in math and physics in 2006 and then went on to grad school in physics at
Harvard in the Fall of 2006. He finished his Masters in January 2008 and then
decided that he really didn't want to be an experimental physicist. So, he's now
on a 2-year leave from the program and working as an energy analyst for ___ in
downtown I hope that you are well and
still the mathman. Andy really benefited from working with you, and I always
enjoyed talking with you too. Have a good October.
Chris It
has been 10 years (1998) since Kodansha Ltd. published the Japanese translation
of the original book.
Mr. Sasaki at Kodansha Ltd., wrote to
Don a month
after they published the Japanese translation of Don's book Calculus By and
For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and up) in 1998: "We
can say that your method was accepted to Japanese people as a kind of new text
in which they could learn and understand math much more than ever before".
Needless to say, Don's Japanese book
has sold much better in 10 years, than the original English version in the US in
20 years!
Back in 1988, Don felt his book was
20 years ahead of its time, and now in 2008 he still feels it is 20 years ahead of
the math taught in schools- of course it's not just the book, but also his
methods of teaching. While in Albany,
he and Marilyn drove past Bethlehem Central Junior High School (now Middle
School) where Don started his math-teaching career in 1954!
1. "Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and
up)”
The
Note: Shipping on all items is
FREE in the US,
To outside U.S. email Don for S&H.
------------
Besides the
two-disk CD set above,
"Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and up)"
(CD-ROM);
14 October 2009 Van,
a 4th grader, graphs in 3D
6 October 2009
Jack invents new ways of
looking at mathematics
5
October 2009
Do
you understand? In 16 languages so far; do you know another?
27 September 2009
Zion
made up the problem: 52.65 - 83.50 = - 31.15 Was he right?
20 September 2009 While iterating a function, Laura, a 4th
grader, divides 7.75 by 2- WOW!
26 August 2009 And
Anushka, age 6, knew neither division nor graphs !
20 August 2009 Don
shows below that the limit of the infinite series 2/5 + (2/5)2 +
(2/5)3 + (2/5)4
+ ... = the area within the orange
triangle. Note that the terms of the series alternate being tall
rectangles (the odd powers) and squares (the even powers). Don connected the orange
diagonal line from the point
(0,1) through the upper right corners of the squares. He found the slope of this
line to be -3/4 and the y-intercept 1; then he found the
x-intercept to be 4/3.
13 August 2009 Don
received this email:
I ordered your book "Calculus By and For Young People" a few years
ago, even before my children were ready for it (my oldest was just turning 5).
It's a good thing I ordered it before they were ready because I wasn't ready for it yet. But my wife and I were homeschooling our
children, and I was looking for new ideas for teaching mathematics, so I started
reading them.
I'm not a math-phobic person. I'm currently completing my PhD in Computer
Science. My wife isn't math-phobic either, and she earned a B.S. in Electrical
Engineering.
Still, as I read your book, I felt like I was experiencing math in a whole new
way. I felt like there was truths in the book that were mind-blowing. I read it
several times before I started to understand that Calculus wasn't the main point
of your book. Learning, Living and Loving mathematics were the core of your
book and Calculus was just the vehicle.
This year, Alex is 7 and he's really advancing in his schooling. We were
preparing (over the Summer) our curriculum for the fall and your book was going
to be Alex's text. Then I was sent the Paul Lockhart article, "A Mathematician's Lament" by a friend. It had a powerful
impact on me, but I couldn't have understood that article, without first reading
your book. The two together helped me come up with a Math "method"
that I am now using with Alex that is just amazing. He has a math notebook,
similar to an engineer or scientist's notebook, that we use every day to explore math problems. We're currently exploring the
math problems in your book "Calculus, by and for young people." As we
learn new formulas, we add them to another section of his notebook we call the
"Formula Toolkit". I do have Alex do some drill problems every day
based on things that are in his "Formula Toolkit", but Alex knows that the drills aren't the math, they're simply
the tools to help him do real math. Thanks to your book, and Lockhart's article,
mathematics will never be the same again for me, or for my children.
Thank you again for your amazing contribution!
(PS, I have a home schooling blog at http://typehpersonalities.blogspot.com.
It's not all about math, but you might like to read my post about "The Joy of Mathematics")."
15 July 2009
Shaleen
moves a parabola 2 units to the right and something else happens!- or
an example of what the teacher does to allow good mathematics to come from a
situation, when the student's answer is
different from what is expected or would be considered "wrong".
7
July 2009 Don
received an email out of the blue. "Freeman Hunter is now following your updates on
Twitter". I
looked at her Twitter site with the update
I don´t know if you remember us, but we came to see you for a week about six
years ago. My son Johann was five years old. I have thought of you
so often and how you inspired our family. Johann loves math and now our
younger son Tristann is also learning to love math through his interest with
origami. I don´t know why we didn´t keep in touch with you, but somehow
life got in the way.
I would like to be able to bring my kids back, I know they would love it. I
am so impressed with how you teach and your love of math. I would love to
hear from you.
Warmly,
Svava (CA)
2 June 2009 From
a note to Don from one of his fathers: Don, The kids had a very good year with
you. In addition to all the things they learned about geometry, numbers and
puzzles, I think they've absorbed the most important idea: math is fun!
22 May 2009 From
a note to Don from one of his mothers: "Thanks for helping Jesse to his
"A" in math! Fondly, K. [Jesse was taking
algebra when he started
with Don in Dec. '08 with an "E" (for failing- of course he didn't
hand in homework), and by the
end of January, a month later, he got an "A" and continued that until
the end of the school year!]
7 May 2009 -
a note from a
parent of 3 of Don’s students,
along with a check for May:
Hi
Don! I wanted to mention that we might send Jack to you this summer- and have
Joe take the summer off. If Joe’s schedule allows him to go to you, we’ll
send both boys.
1
May 2009
The general idea is to start with a simple
"dot to dot" picture on a coordinate plane, and then apply a matrix
transformation to coordinates of every dot.
Like many activities involving massive number
crunching, it works much better on computers. [That’s why Don starts with a
simple “doggie” with only 9 integral points, and limits students to only
1’s, 0’s and -1’s to form
the transformation matrix, so there is not a lot of number crunching]. You can experiment with this applet,
transforming a doggie, on Don's site [made by IES in Japan] at: http://www.mathman.biz/html/dogtrans6/changing_shapes_with_matrices%20ies6.html
28 April 2009
Don
and his students Jay, Chris, and Elizabeth find a new number- the Dottie number
2 April 2009
30 March 2009
From
a note to Don from one of his mothers: Dear Mr. Cohen, ..We are fortunate
that Mildred was able to work with you this past year.. We will always happily
recommend your services to others and would not hesitate to contact you in the
future if we should find Mildred in need of additional math tutoring. Thanks for
everything. T.C.
23
March 2009
from an email
Sincerely,
Julie (Mom)
20 March 2009 From Michael's Mom: Don,
Thank you for working with Michael [8 months via email- see some of his work
below]. Maybe we can come spend a few days in person with you this summer...
26 February 2009 Dear Lori Johnson Morse, my friend and fellow math
tutor wrote a little article about
Don which was accepted on an eNY Times
page- take a look.
18 February 2009 See
Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers The
Story of Success. Chapter
8 is entitled: Rice Paddies and Math Tests. Lots of interesting connections and
without knowing these, Don had his Calculus.. book translated into Japanese and
sold much better in 10 years in Japan than the original English version
has sold in
20 years in
the US.
2 February 2009
Email:
“I heard about your product (2 disk CD set) from a homeschooling family that
is registered with the same DL school [in
23
January 2009
Email from Don's
Facebook
file
As a teacher, Don likes this quote by an
anonymous writer who said: "We have not succeeded in answering all your
problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new
questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we
are confused on a higher level and about more important things".
Mathematics in Science:
Michael has been working through Don's worksheet book and with Don via email,
for about 8
months. In chapter 6 there is a diagram of hinged mirrors at left,
below. Students are asked to look between the mirrors to see how many images of
a red rod, say, that they see with the mirrors open at an angle of 90o
(3 + the original=4).
Fine applets to
interact with -you need to download
free
Java program to view these:
10
October 2008 Don received this note
from the mother of her 11th grade student:
1 - 3
October 2008 Mathematics in Nature:
Aaron, Don's grandson,
brought him a sunflower head cut from his garden; it was about a foot in
diameter. The seeds grow in spiral arrays
in 2 directions. See the photo below that Don
took of the sunflower head, then added the numbers. Maddie, a 5th grader, with Don,
counted the rows of seeds in the one direction going clockwise around the
sunflower head (starting and ending in the lower left of the picture). They colored the
starting or first row red
and every 10th row red,
to help keep track of the counting. The rows bend sometimes, not perfect
spirals, which makes it difficult to count. Then Don and some other students
finished counting those and the rows in the second direction, again going
clockwise around the sunflower head, coloring the starting or first
row black
and every 10th row black. 
26 September 2008
Don received this email from the mother of
a former student:
It has been 20 years (1988) since
Don published his book Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and
up) . It was reviewed in the Dec. 1988 issue of Scientific
American magazine. It is still selling, now on CD Rom, and on his 2-disk CD set Calculus
For Young People . Then came Calculus By and For Young People-Worksheets
with questions leading to the different ideas. Then 2 videos (Infinite Series
and Iteration), A Map To
Calculus and Changing Shapes With Matrices. All items are now on his 2-disk CD set Calculus
For Young People
10 September 2008-
20 February 2009
Erin
has made 16- 3x3x3 cubes with the 7 Soma pieces and drawn the layers
to help others make a cube. Erin is amazing; she keeps coming up with new
ones, and can tell if it is different from the others- of course she checks
them!
22
August
2008
From
Michael's Mom: "Do you like to
see the parents involved..?" Don's
response: Yes, even to
have you child explain something to you. I had Sheri as a 4-6th grader; now she is a
12th grader taking Calculus. I worked with her for about 3 hrs individually
over the last month (August 2008). Today, a week into her calculus class, she
told me 'What we did the last 3 weeks (derivatives), the teacher did
with my class in one day, and I was like the only one in the class that
understood what she was talking about! It really helped for me to talk with you
about the problems as I worked on them'. On Don's main page, search
"Sheri" to see what she did as a 4th-6th grader!
11 August 2008 Sara
& Maya,
age 7 (twins), find Patterns in division
21 July 2008 Alex,
a 2nd grader,
sees
an infinite series!!!
27 June 2008 Mom
and Dad with their 6 children,
drove down from North of
Chicago. Mom
and 4
children, 3 girls and 1 boy, worked with Don for 2
hours, while Dad and their
two youngest children went off to the park. Click here
to see what they worked on.
17
June 2008 Don received this
thank you note from Paul, who came to Don from
3rd grade through
12th grade:
Dear Mr. Cohen,
Thank you very much
for the beautiful graduation card, the gift card to Pages For all Ages, and for
attending graduation. Even more significantly, thank you for
providing a strong foundation in mathematics and for helping me through subjects
I found especially difficult. Your innovative approaches and teaching styles
kept math interesting and fun, while the teaching methods in school made it dull
and repetitive. This approach has been something that I can apply to different
aspects of my life, by looking at a topic from a different angle, I am able to
much more thoroughly comprehend the subject.
Once again, thank you so much for all you've done.
Sincerely,
Paul
Thank you Paul, for
your dedication to excellence and being a wonderful human being, and to Mom and
Dad, for making it all possible! You all have helped make the last 10 years of my
teaching very enjoyable.
16-21 June
2008 Nanako
came from Japan again to work with Don!
3 May 2008 Don
& Marilyn were in Albany, NY to accept his 2008 Excellence in Education
award- see the program and Don
after his speech .
Don
wants to thank the Alumni Association of UAlbany, SUNY, his friends, students and parents of his students who wrote to
support his nomination. Don realizes though, that this award is not as important
as his work with individual students over the years-and for that he is most
grateful. It has been a great ride!
April 2008 Margaret,
an 8th grader, asks a great question!
Don's 2-disk CD
set,
"Calculus For Young People
(2 CD set)",
ISBN 9780977949311,
contains
all
of Don’s materials -3 books, 2 videos, map, & poster, listed here:
2. "Calculus By and For Young People--Worksheets"
3. "A Map to Calculus"-- a 15" x 18"
flowchart
4. Video #1 "Infinite Series By and For 6 year-olds and up"
5. Video #2 "Iteration to Infinite Sequences with 6 to 11 year-olds"
6. "Changing Shapes With Matrices"
7. “On thinking About and Doing Mathematics”-11x14” poster
Don will continue to sell these
"Calculus By and For Young People--Worksheets"
(CD-ROM);
ISBN 9780962167478
___________$35.95
(also
on 2 CD set)
"A Map to Calculus"-- a 15" x 18" poster-flowchart;
ISBN 9780962167485___________ $13.95
(also
on 2 CD set)
See what Rainbow
Resource Center says about Don's materials.
Jonathan has finished the
course work for his
"Changing
Shapes With Matrices" (paper);
ISBN
9780962167430
__________$15.95
(also
on 2 CD set)
1 January 2008
What
a way to start the new year! Don spoke to Jonathan (now
26 years old)
and his Mom and Dad who are in CT. Jonathan, at age 7, started
working in Don's book Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7 and
up), with his Mom acting as his secretary. She sent his work to Don.
(This started Don on his Math
By Mail/Email Program). That
and the following summer, his Dad brought him to Champaign for a week to work
with Don. Some of Jonathan's work is in Don's worksheet book and
he is on his videotapes.
Don is very pleased when his students do well!
What a
wonderful year 2007 has been. If we could only have Peace, and no one should go
hungry!
2 3 March 2007: Geometric
Sequences and the 88 Keys on a Piano by
Don
17 February 2007 Five
views of Don's Math Room - where it
all happens!
7
February 2007
Don spoke to Loralee
Johnson at "4 Your Mind" and told people during the
Marilyn and
Don Cohen are excited about their part-time work as Shaklee Distributors and
users of many Shaklee
“in harmony with nature”
products-100% guaranteed -nutritional supplements including the new VITALIZER, Get Clean, Cinch
inch-loss program, air purifier and more!- and they want to share these with
you. Please take a look at their Shaklee
website if you want to feel better, want a healthy home, a healthy planet, and
bring in some extra money.
19
July
2007:
Don
received this email from a parent who had purchased his 2-disc CD set:
"..I just wanted to say thank you again for inspiring me and helping me
realize that kids can understand and do so much more with math than many
people are willing to believe..".
13
June
2007:
Leah's
Mom called to tell Don that Leah got into UNI High School and would continue to
work with Don in August when she returns to Champaign- Congratulations Leah!!
9 February 2007
Don received an order for his 2-disc CD ROM set from
Moscow, Russia !!
“..You wrote an amazing book
(Don's worksheet book). Every week what my kids learn puts smiles on their faces. It makes me smile, too. You make people smile because they can understand math better. It’s a gift and you share it with as many people as you can! And I am having a blast following in your footsteps. Much, much thanks! Lori”. KC, MOSee the internet links to Don's website and references to his books
from around the world!Homeschooling math by Don Cohen
About Don's materials (7 items) and how they are used
Send email to Don Cohen concerning his 'Math by Mail/Email' with IM and video,
coming to Champaign to work with him , ways he could improve his web site, or other issues.
Don's Materials
Will Teach You
To:
