About Math Without Borders
Mission Statement
These courses provide high quality teaching-for-understanding to make the strongest existing textbooks accessible for self-teaching in a homeschool environment. Our goal is to provide the best college preparatory math/physics education available anywhere in any context. Check out our Reviews by both professionals and parents to judge how well we achieve those goals.
David Chandler
Author/Producer of the Home Study Companion courses
Allow me to introduce myself. I am David Chandler, author of the Home Study Companion series. I love to teach physics and mathematics!
Education: I have a BS in Physics from Harvey Mudd College (individual program of studies combining physics and engineering), an MA in Education from Claremont Graduate University, and an MS in Mathematics from California Polytechnic University.
Teaching Experience: I have taught physics, mathematics, astronomy, and computer programming since 1972 in public, private, international, and charter schools and community colleges. In the last nine years before I retired, I taught at Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center, a K-12 charter school that works with homeschooling families. Working with homeschoolers led me to see the need for course materials that replace the classroom experience. Through these courses I have taught far more students in my retirement than in my regular teaching career!
One of my more interesting projects at Eleanor Roosevelt was designing a mixed grade level course called Math Explorations (for 2nd grade through Jr. high) to stimulate curiosity and encourage mathematical thinking. Math Explorations involved “precursor activities.” I described it as “stuff that doesn’t look like math.” We did puzzles, mazes, perspective drawing, distorted photographs, and a lot of other fun and fascinating things to stimulate curiosity, inventiveness, and a sense of wonder. It’s not about “math skills,” narrowly defined. It’s about how the brain is wired! This is the kind of thing I could do at a charter school working with homeschoolers that I would never get away with in a conventional public school. I took a similar approach for several months as a “math columnist” for the online Schoolhouse Teachers program, except this time at the high school level. A few of my Math Explorations projects are on display under the Bonus Topics tab.
I have frequently put mathematics to work outside the classroom, including working as a programmer, inventor, product designer, and consultant. I really do use math on a daily basis apart from teaching! Mathematics is a wonderful tool that enhances the potential for both creativity and fundamental understanding of the world.
David Chandler interviewed by Juaneka Brim of OneEightyEducation.com
(Play on YouTube)
Contact Information
To contact Math Without Borders, Inc., the best options are to
- Send an Email to MathWithoutBorders@gmail.com,
- Write to: David Chandler, 2331 S Jackson St, Denver, CO 80210
- You can also call or leave a voice message at 503-867-1604, but I don’t have any regular office staff, so in general, email is better. [Keep in mind I am operating in Mountain Time (Denver) = GMT-7, EST-2, CST-1, or PST+1.]
- If you want to read about other people’s experiences using Math Without Borders courses, check out the Reviews tab.
- I also have a Math Without Borders Facebook page. [I don’t “live” on Facebook, so if you send me a Direct Message on Facebook, I may not see it for days or weeks. For 2-way interaction, email is preferable to Facebook messages.]
Please contact me if you are having difficulty installing any of the software or getting it to work properly. It has all been tested and should work correctly. If not, I will work with you to remedy the situation.
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