Item SA7 - A.L.s., from Walter Warwick Sawyer to Jessie Lees

Sawyer thanks Lees for her letter and writes that he does not have any information about the B.P. self-instruction materials. Concerning non-academic works, he recommends that she contact the 'Mathematics for the Majority' project at Exeter University to request a list of their publications. She might also contact Dr. R.B. Coates of the Schools Council Project. Sawyer is preoccupied with an unwritten volume in his Penguin 'Introducing Mathematics' series, entitled 'Introducing Geometry' . He had intended that this be written by someone with experience in teaching geometry to young children, but it appears that this will not be so. In his experiments with young children, Sawyer has found that they often cannot visualise things as well as adults. They should therefore have access to experiences which would enable them to clarify their geometrical insight. He provides examples of how this could be achieved. Also describes how he has discovered an intelligence test for spatial ability that could be played as a game, called 'Passalong', and encloses a MSS overview for this, including a diagram, together with rules and diagrams for two other games to be used for entertainment or as teaching methods. Concludes the letter by saying that he once spoke to someone who had a similar idea to that which Lees has indicated; he described it as an Amusement Arcade, in which students could play with mathematical models at their leisure.