Mathematics through narrative: an article, a few blog posts, and my talk at NarraScope

I have written some and spoken some on engaging mathematics through narrative (with a heavy focus on interactive fiction). Now that we have this education forum, I thought I would post some links to what I’ve written in case others are interested. The article and blog posts below should be accessible even if you don’t have much background in mathematics.

  • Mathematics Through Narrative” is an article I wrote for Math Horizons, which is a sort of newsletter/magazine published by the Mathematical Association of America. The article is basically about math in IF and my game A Beauty Cold and Austere.

(The link above is to the published version of the article, which under Taylor & Francis’s author agreement only allows - if I remember correctly - for a certain number of views. So if you click on the above link and it doesn’t work, here’s a fairly-close-to-final draft of the text, without all the pictures and formatting in the published version.)

Also, these four blog posts cover the same ground as my talk at NarraScope this past weekend, although they go into more detail in places than the talk did.

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Mike’s article and his blog posts are really worth considering, even for those of us who don’t teach mathematics. “Five Theses on Mathematics in Games” is particularly thought-provoking, though it’s probably best considered in the context of all the other material that Mike has provided.

Many thanks, Spike!

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