Who We Are
Hi! I'm Alpha and this is my human Pam! We're super excited you're here so we can share with you our passion for Math! But first, a little about us both...
I was rescued from the streets of Korea and brought to Canada to find a forever home. Boy, was I lucky that I found Pam. She's got a background in math and science and also in Education. She's got a Master's degree in Mathematics for Teachers and is currently working on her PhD in Math Education. She loves math almost as much as I do.
However, she gets quite sad when she hears people, especially kids, talk about how much they hate math, or don't get math, or even that they're not smart enough to do math.
So that's why we decided to create LOOK: MATH!
Our Story
LOOK: MATH! was developed with the simple idea that anyone can do, and enjoy, math. It's not about learning formulas and equations and memorizing facts and figures, it's about so much more.
Math is about being inspired to see the world around you in a different, and new, way. It's about seeing math in the trees, and in the skies above us. It's about seeing math in nature and art and music and also in the ways we get around.
And that's what LOOK: MATH! means, it literally means to stop and LOOK at all the MATH around you.
Our Project
On our website (lookmath.ca) we have a series of videos following Alpha "the Math Loving Dog" as he adventures around the city of Toronto, where he lives. We decided to follow Alpha because his curiosity amazed us and he inspired us to stop and really look at the world around us.
Alpha was a rescue from the streets of Korea and the story of how he arrived in Toronto inspired us; it also contained a LOT of math. From the airplane ride to the train trip and then his adventures in a car, Alpha's trip to his forever home was filled with math (and wouldn't have been possible without it).
So that's the focus of our first book - the Math of Transportation.
We are creating a storybook that tells Alpha's story of how he came to Canada and found his forever home along with all the math he saw along the way. We also have future plans to create an activity book or app that parents and teachers can use to teach various math concepts to their kids.
The storybook is aimed at students in grades 4 and 5, as this is where many children begin to drift away from finding math as an enjoyable subject (you can learn more about this here).
Why It Matters
We also passionately believe that math has gotten a bad reputation and we want a chance to change that.
There are lots of books and apps and websites out there that teach math skills, but we believe that to truly learn something you need to be inspired by it, you need to see its relevance to the world around you. So that's where we decided to be different; something that seeks to inspire rather than directly instruct. But don't worry, there's still plenty of math involved.
Why a Book?
There is a magical quality to a good book. It takes the reader away into a fantastic world of imagination and promise; and that's what we see math doing as well. We want to encourage youth to see math in a new way and we truly believe that this book can have a profound impact on how kids see the world around them.
How You Can Help
Writing a book is a lot of work and we want to make it as colourful and engaging as we can. So that's where we need your help. We need funds to support the writing of the book. While Pam is doing all the writing, and most of the illustrating herself, which does keep costs low, it does take a lot of time and effort on her part. 
We are also looking to self-publish to books to keep the overall costs low so that we have more funds available to dedicate to new books and an eventual activity book or app that will go along with the storybooks to encourage even more in-depth explorations of the topics.
Contributing to the Story
In addition, your contribution to the book financially will also give you a say in the book itself; as all our donors will have regular opportunities (should they choose) to have a say about the characters, the illustrations and the story. Some of our contribution levels even give the chance to become a character in the final story!
And all our contributors will receive a personalized thanks from Alpha himself.
Finally, Our Thanks
Our first thanks goes to you for taking the time to read and consider our campaign and we hope you will consider helping us out.
Alpha, the Math Avenger, Thanks You!
We would also like to thank our video producer and graphic designer who believe in this project so much that they are providing us with services for well below market value in order to allow us to keep our costs as low as possible to launch this project.
Bonus
As a bonus for reading our campaign we are proud to share the first draft of the first two pages of the book with you here... in addition, all contributors to our campaign will get 'sneak peaks' at various parts of the book as they are created.
