Lynda Colgan

Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that author Lynda Colgan is now scheduling visits in and around Kingston, Ontario.  Lynda will travel across southern Ontario by train.
 
Lynda would be delighted to visit to your school or library. Her rate is $275 per one hour session, or $500 for a full morning. Lynda prefers to work with classroom groups of Grade 4 to 6 students but larger audiences can be accommodated.

Lynda’s first children’s book, Mathemagic! Number Tricks, has been nominated by the Ontario Library Association for the Silver Birch non-fiction award. The Kirkus review of Mathemagic! says, “Colgan makes math cool, and that speaks for itself.” On Biblio Reads Children’s Book review, reader Lisa Barker says, “What an awesome book! It's filled with cool "tricks" that your child can play on friends and family all while learning math. This is definitely the kind of book parents look for. It's both educational and fun, but so fun the kids won't care that it's good for them.”

Reviewer Thomas Falkenberg writes, “Most of the number tricks presented in the book are based on quite sophisticated mathematical ideas involving numbers. This has two desired effects. First, it makes it difficult for the audience to see the magician "into the cards," so to speak, which keeps the tricks "magic." Second, for those students (and teachers) who want to get into understanding the tricks and their underlying mathematical ideas, the explanations of the tricks will most likely develop a deeper number sense in them than they had before. The excellent explanations of the tricks and their underlying mathematical ideas have a very high educational value. To be accurate, the explanations use the relevant mathematical terminology, like "the first digit in the product" and "multiples of 9," which are, however, explicated in the glossary at the end of the book. But even for want-to-be magicians (students or teachers) who are not interested in how the tricks work or who find the underlying mathematics of some of the tricks to difficult to (yet) understand, the book should be of great value because the steps the magician needs to take to execute each of the tricks are very clearly outlined in a step-by-step fashion. A magician can be magical even if s/he does not know why a trick works! And for aspiring mathemagicians the book provides a number of helpful hints on how to perform the magic tricks well.”

Presentation Details

Grades 4, 5 and 6: (approximately 60 minutes) The presentation will be in the form of an audience-participation magic show! All the tricks are based on mathematics…with a fun twist. Dressed in a black cape and top hat, I will use a crystal ball to predict answers to questions. I will read minds and magically make predictions about numbers that will pop up in the most unusual places. In addition to my magic wand (and my special magic incantation, Mathekazam!), I will use “props” including dice, beans, bones and decipher codes from ancient Egyptian scrolls. Finally, I disclose some of the secrets behind the tricks and invite questions.

For me, the best part of being a mathemagician is to see the looks of surprise on children’s faces as I perform tricks based on numbers! It is those amused looks of bewilderment during the performance and the excited “Aha!” expressions on children’s faces as I explain the steps behind the tricks that inspire me to continue my mission to show that math is fun, surprising and, yes, even magical!

I will present to:

Grades 4 - 8.

The most successful workshops are with one class (up to 30 students) at a time, but I will present to multiple classes if necessary.

I prefer to present in a classroom or library.

I require:

A table.

Computer and data projector.

Pre-cut props (made at school/library in advance of workshop) for individual participants to use and take home.

I also offer: 

Presentations for Numeracy Nights.

Workshops for teachers about math and art.

Talks to parents about the importance of mathematics and current practices in mathematics curriculum.