Lessons Learned

Do the Math

By Drew Gieseke

For nearly 20 years, Dave Cole has coached elementary school math teams. He’s instructed children in the Parkway and Ladue School Districts, as well as taught math at the Gifted Resource Council. And for six years, Cole oversaw elementary math camps with his son.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with the kids and getting that ‘Ah ha’ moment where a math concept hits home,” Cole describes.

These experiences inspired Cole to develop children’s novels in a series called “The Math Kids.” In October, Cole published the seventh entry in his book series, titled “A Knotty Problem.” Book eight, “An Artificial Test,” is set to publish April 2023.

The local author first began developing his book series during the camps he ran. Cole used stories to illustrate math concepts and develop math puzzles, both of which the campers seemed to enjoy. Inspired, Cole decided to document those stories so that he could use them again.

“By the time I finished, I had written ‘The Prime-Time Burglars,’ my first Math Kids’ story,” he says of the book released in 2018. “I enjoyed writing it so much that I wrote two additional books. It was only then that I reached out to publishers.”

“The Math Kids” series follows a group of kids who form a club based on their shared interest in the subject, and it mixes elements of Cole’s favorite two book series as a kid: “The Hardy Boys” and “Encyclopedia Brown.”

Each entry focuses on a central math theme. For example, “The Prime-Time Burglars” deals with prime numbers. In “A Knotty Problem,” published by Common Deer Press, Cole says there’s “some interesting math around knots.”

“I took this theme and worked in a story of a conflict between Stephanie’s soccer tournament and the district math competition,” he continues. “I think the story is important because we’re often faced with making choices, which can impact our friends or family. Not all problems are mathrelated, but sometimes we can use the same logical approach to find a solution.”

Cole admits that he never anticipated the series to take off when he first started writing. The goal was to tell stories that kids enjoy, with a little bit of education in the background. Kids and parents alike love the books, he says, not only because they’re entertaining but also because they help youngsters rethink what math is all about.

“Math is all around us – in nature, art, music and [in] these amazing patterns,” Cole says. “We don’t have to understand the complex equations to enjoy the results. If a kid says, ‘Who knew math was so cool?’, then I got the result I wanted.” ln The Math Kids, themathkids.com