MoMath's top holiday picks for 2016
It's that time of year again where we find ourselves looking for that perfect holiday gift. Come into Additions, the shop at MoMath, or browse online at shop.momath.org, and watch the possibilities multiply!
Volumes and Tween Primes book selections:
Cozy up to good reads from MoMath’s book clubs this winter, and take advantage of great savings when you purchase the next six titles (January through June) as a bundle. Click here for the Volumes selections, or here for Tween Primes.
A one-of-a-kind gift for all ages:
With a quick twist, the Playable ART Lollipopter magically transforms from a helix into a pinecone-shape and back again in one amazingly elegant motion. Resembling everyday beautiful natural objects, like autumn pinecones and seashell swirls, the shape of the Lollipopter shares the same underlying mathematical concepts as the Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Angle.
For your littlest mathematicians:
Shape Sorting Clock
Time to play! A colorful wooden clock features twelve wooden blocks that fit into matching slots, plus movable hands! With lots of "timely" information on the hands and clock face, this is the perfect toy to help children master an abstract concept.
Recommended book: Fibonacci Zoo
When Eli and his father visit an unusual zoo, they count the creatures in each exhibit. Eli sees one alligator, then one bison, and next two camels. Soon a number pattern emerges and Eli thinks he can predict how many animals will be in the next exhibit. Explore the zoo with Eli as he runs ahead to test his hypothesis. Perfect for toddlers.
For beginning thinkers:
Rush Hour and Rush Hour Jr.
It will take more than a little skilled driving to get the red car out of this traffic jam – it'll take brainpower! In Rush Hour, a sliding block logic game, you have to battle the gridlock as you slide the blocking vehicles out of the way for the red car to exit. With 40 all-new challenges ranging in difficulty, players can progress at their own speed. As one of the best spatial math and logic games of all time, Rush Hour is a must for every household!
Recommended book: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the famous romantic poet, Lord Byron, develops her creativity through science and math. When she meets Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical computer, Ada understands the machine better than anyone else and writes the world's first computer program in order to demonstrate its capabilities.
For young creators with big ideas:
ITSPHUN Polygon Construction Kit
A collaboration between MoMath and ITSPHUN, the contents of this kit can be used to make many different structures. This kit includes a 104-piece system of interlocking shapes that can be combined in endless ways to make wonderful and colorful creations at the intersection of art and mathematics — the possibilities are endless! Descriptions and pictures of some of these objects can be found in the cards included in the packet.
Recommended book: Secret Coders
Welcome to Stately Academy, a school which is just crawling with mysteries to be solved. The founder of the school left many clues and puzzles to challenge his enterprising students. Using their wits and their growing prowess with coding, Hopper and her friend Eni are going to solve the mystery of Stately Academy no matter what it takes!
For puzzling teenagers:
Eni Mini Puzzle
What can you do with a little space? In this classic desktop "fidget" toy, the empty space left by a deliberately missing piece helps create endless possibilities of patterns and illustrations. There's no one set way to place the tiles or solve the puzzle; in fact, the best solution is in puzzlers' imaginations!
Recommended book: Nearly Gone
Living in a DC trailer park, Nearly Boswell knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn't trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance… on her. Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, but if she doesn't figure it all out soon—she'll be next!
For adults who love twists and turns:
Hypercycles
A Spirograph within a Spirograph! This piece is an original design created by John Edmark. It works just like a classic Spirograph, except there are two moving elements to combine: a skew ring (i.e., a disk with a hole that is off center), and a smaller disk called the wheel. This configuration allows the creation of more complex and more beautiful curves!
Recommended book: A Doubter's Almanac
Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at U.C. Berkeley he realizes the extent, and the risks, of his singular gifts. California in the seventies is a seduction, opening Milo's eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there—and the rival he meets alongside her—will haunt him for the rest of his life. Milo's brilliance is entwined with a dark need that soon grows to threaten his work, his family, and even his existence.
For seniors with infinite ideas:
The Proof is in the Pudding Bowls
Perfect for anyone who can never consume enough math! This is a set of four ceramic pudding bowls with the proofs to classic theorems of Euclid, Hippasus, Pythagoras, and Gauss.
Recommended book: Hidden Figures
This is the phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and entering the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
For the chic geek:
Pythagorean Theorem Earrings
Pythagoras never looked so good! Trigonometry lovers can wear the classic theorem everywhere they go with these earrings in blue, orange, green, purple, pink, red, yellow and sterling silver.
For the family that plays together:
The Joy of SET and SET Card Game
Have you ever played the addictive card game SET? Have you ever wondered about the connections between games and mathematics? If the answer to either question is “yes,” then The Joy of SET is the book for you! The Joy of SET takes readers on a fascinating journey into this seemingly simple card game and reveals its surprisingly deep and diverse mathematical dimensions. Don't miss the chance to purchase the SET Card Game along with the book to make a perfect match!
For your favorite teacher:
MoMath Totebag
Give your favorite teacher the ability to hang on to his or her daily essentials in this easy-to-carry and roomy MoMath zippered tote bag!
For anyone who loves the beauty of math:
Frabjous
Frabjous is back! Made of thirty identical pieces, this geometric assembly puzzle is composed of the face planes of a great rhombic triacontahedron, a self-intersecting polyhedron with 30 rhombic faces. The puzzle is a carefully designed subset of the rhombus that doesn't intersect copies of itself.
For when you want to show just how cool math is:
Toroflux
A mesmerizing kinetic sculpture and torus-shaped toy made from a single spiralling strand of metal, Toroflux takes math and puts it in motion. The individual rings can be easily bent to allow anyone to let it smoothly flow freely along his/her arm, pass it off to a friend, or do all sorts of other tricks. And if you think that sounds cool, just wait until you see it in action.
or
PhiTOP
The PhiTOP is an elegant scientific, mathematical, artistic, and aesthetically pleasing object that brings joy to the eye, hand, and mind! It levels up executive toys and makes a perfect gift.
For that hard-to-shop-for-person in your life:
A MoMath Gift Card
Give the gift of math—and let the recipient choose how to use it. Purchase your gift card online or stop by Additions and pick one up. Gift cards can be redeemed in the shop or applied towards the cost of admission to the Museum.
