Math In Our World, Media Update

The author team of Dave Sobecki, Angela Matthews, and Allan Bluman have worked together to create the second edition of Mathematics in Our World, an engaging text catered to the needs of today’s liberal arts mathematics students. This revision focuses strict attention to a clear and friendly writing style, integration of numerous relevant real-world examples and applications, and implementation of the step-by-step approach used for years in Bluman’s Elementary Statistics: A Step by Step Approach. The result is an exceptionally engaging text that is able to both effectively and creatively convey the basic concepts fundamental to a liberal arts math curriculum for even the most hesitant student.

I was born and raised in Cleveland, and started college at Bowling Green State University in 1984 majoring in creative writing. Eleven years later, I walked across the graduation stage to receive a PhD in math, a strange journey indeed. After two years at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, I came home to Ohio, accepting a tenure-track job at the Hamilton campus of Miami University. I’ve won a number of teaching awards in my career, and while maintaining an active teaching schedule, I now spend an inordinate amount of time writing textbooks and course materials. I’ve written or co-authored either seven or twelve textbooks, depending on how you count them, as well as several solutions manuals and interactive CD-ROMS. After many years as developmental math coordinator at Miami Hamilton, I share the frustration that goes along with low pass rates in the developmental math curriculum. Far too many students end up on the classic Jetson’s-style treadmill, with the abstract nature of the traditional algebra curriculum keeping them from reaching their goals. Like so many instructors across the country, I believe the time is right to move beyond the one-size-fits-all curriculum that treats students the same whether they hope to be an engineer or a pastry chef. “Because we’ve always done it that way” is NOT a good reason to maintain the status quo in our curriculum. Let’s work together to devise alternate pathways that help students to learn more and learn better while hastening their trip into credit-bearing math courses. Since my book (Math in Our World) is written for the Liberal Arts Math and Quantitative Literacy market, I think I’m in the right place at the right time to make a difference in the new and exciting pathways course. I’m in a very happy place right now: my love of teaching meshes perfectly with my childhood dream of writing. (Don’t tell my publisher this – they think I spend 20 hours a day working on textbooks – but I’m working on my first novel in the limited spare time that I have.) I’m also a former coordinator of Ohio Project NExT, as I believe very strongly in helping young college instructors focus on high-quality teaching as a primary career goal. I live in Fairfield, Ohio with my lovely wife Cat and fuzzy dogs Macleod and Tessa. When not teaching or writing, my passions include Ohio State football, Cleveland Indians baseball, heavy metal music, travel, golf, and home improvement.

Allan G. Bluman is a professor emeritus at the Community College of Allegheny County, South Campus, near Pittsburgh. He has taught mathematics and statistics for over 35 years. He received an Apple for the Teacher award in recognition of his bringing excellence to the learning environment at South Campus. He has also taught statistics for Penn State University at the Greater Allegheny (McKeesport) Campus and at the Monroeville Center. He received his master's and doctor's degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

In addition to Elementary Statistics: A Step by Step Approach (Eighth Edition ©2012) and Elementary Statistics: A Brief Version (Fifth Edition ©2010), Al is a co-author on a liberal arts mathematics text published by McGraw-Hill, Math in Our World (2nd Edition ©2011). Al also the author of for mathematics books in the McGraw-Hill DeMystified Series. They are Pre-Algebra, Math Word Problems, Business Math, and Probability.

Al Bluman is married and has two sons and a granddaughter.

Angela Schirck-Matthews is a Professor of Mathematics at Broward College in Davie, Florida, where she has been teaching mathematics since 1991. Before employment at Broward College she taught undergraduate mathematics at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. She is also an alum of both institutions; Angela earned an Associate of Arts degree in liberal arts at Broward College and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University, she continued her education at the University of Miami where she earned a Master of Science degree in mathematics and completed coursework towards a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Angela lives in Hollywood, Florida with her husband, three of her four children, and two dogs.