Mathematics Text Books

As discussed elsewhere, we used the Saxon Maths series of books for primary maths, but I ultimately settled on the Understanding Maths series of texts from Accelerated Maths Learning to support our junior high school (Years 7-10) curriculum. This is a reasonably current (2004) series published to specifically support the NSW high school curriculum, although it seems to be appropriate for all states of Australia. Having only one child, and a background in the sciences, I have little feel for how broadly applicable these texts might be, but they appear to have been well received and I was very happy with the way they presented the material.

We recently encountered the mathematics enrichment program developed by the Australian Mathematics Trust. I wish we'd found this sooner, but that's been an all too common story for us, and part of the reason for this Web site. The AMT conducts a number of mathematics enrichment activities, all via schools, although their on-line bookshop offers much of their material to 'the general public'. We are now working though some of this material (the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians books) and finding it really enjoyable.

For senior high school (Years 11 & 12), I plan to use the venerable series from Coroneos Publishing (Year 11 3 Unit, Year 12 3 Unit, 4 Unit and 4 Unit Supplement). I used them 40 years ago, and found myself well prepared for tertiary studies. I note that while they have been revised constantly since then, they are still recognisable as the texts that I used. Actually, it'd be nice if the typesetting made the leap into the 21st century and they weren't so recognisable! (To be fair, I haven't seen the latest editions, so maybe that comment is no longer warranted).

We also plan to continue with the AMT materials mentioned above.