opportunities for pre-college students: circles, competitions, … · 2020-07-20 · math circles...

Opportunities for Pre-College Students: Circles,Competitions, Fairs, and Longer Programs

Michael A. Jones

Editor Elect, MAA’s Mathematics MagazineAssociate Editor, Mathematical Reviews/MathSciNet, AMS

Ann Arbor, MI

Mathematics Education Program, UC IrvineTuesday, January 28, 2014

Michael A. Jones Opportunities for Pre-College Students

Pre-College Opportunities in Mathematics

There are a number of opportunities for pre-college students tolearn and to do mathematics.

1. CirclesPublic talks for high school and/or middle school students.

2. CompetitionsLocal, national, and international contests challenge students to

solve problems. Classes often used to prepare students.

3. FairsPoster presentations and talks given by students, sometimes of an

expository nature.

4. Longer ProgramsClass-like or research programs in which students meet repeatedly

on a narrower set of topics.


Shared Goals of Pre-College Opportunities

These activities share a number of common goals and oftenoverlap with one another. These goals include

• to expose students to diverse, non-curriculum basedmathematics, often in a problem-based setting,

• to find and to encourage talented students,

• to educate students (and their families) about the opportunitiesfor math-based careers, and, ultimately,

• to become passionate about mathematics!

Specific programs may also have additional goals such as

• to provide opportunities to underrepresented groups or

• to highlight specific types of pure or applied mathematics.


Brief Overview

In this talk, I will

• describe the aforementioned opportunities,

• provide details and hopefully some perspective from beinginvolved with these types of activities at the elementary,middle, and high school levels, and

• mention some advantages for faculty to become involved in suchprograms.

Back Story

I was certainly aware of, and participated in, a number of thesetypes of programs while a faculty member at Montclair StateUniversity (in New Jersey). As an editor at Mathematical Reviews,possibly because of less interaction with students, I have becomemore involved in these programs, in part because of my twoelementary school-aged children.


Math Circles

History

• Math Circles in the US have been around since 1998, when theBerkeley Math Circle was formed. However, they originated inHungary nearly 100 years ago, and consequently spread toEastern Europe and Asia.

• A Math Circle’s activities often include public talks, as well asproblem-solving sessions and contests. In the US, theemphasis has been mostly on talks at an appropriate level.

• In the US (including Puerto Rico), there are 175 Math Circlesaccording to the National Association of Math Circles

More Recently

• Teacher Math Circles allow teachers to develop effectiveapproaches to teaching mathematics, with a particularemphasis on problem solving.

• In 2008, the AMS started publishing the MSRI MathematicalCircles Library.


The Michigan Math Circle at the University of Michigan

• The Michigan Math Circle offers 9 talks in each of the fall andspring terms.

• The first talk each term is for both middle (grades 6-8) and highschool (grades 9-12) students.

• The next 8 talks are divided into parts 1 and 2 with separatetalks for the middle and high school students. Part 2 occursthe following week.

• Participants are required to pay a fee to attend the lectures. Thefee is used to provide snacks for the students.


The Michigan Math Circle at the University of Michigan II

Specifics about the Michigan Math Circle.

• Talks are for an hour and a half including a short snack break.Successful talks often involve the students and provide ample time

to solve problems related to the content.

• Talks are often informal and given on a chalk/white board.

• The audience has ranged from 4 to 20 students.

• Undergraduate students offer assistance and attend the sessions.

Benefits

The Michigan Math Circle has been successful in advertising theuniversity’s programs.

Undergraduate students learn new material, too.


Competitions and Contests: Elementary School Events

Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle School Students

• MOEMS was created in 1977. Last year nearly 150,000 studentsfrom 6,000 teams worldwide participated in the MathOlympiads. All 50 US states and about 30 other countrieswere represented.

• This is a year-long program for school students from grades 4 to8 in up to 35-member teams.

• Teams meet weekly for an hour, exploring a topic or strategy indepth and/or practicing problem-solving.

• There are five monthly contests, given from November to March.

• MOEMS has filled the void to challenge the more advancedstudents.


Competitions and Contests: Elementary School Events

Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad

• Science Olympiad was created in 1983 as to increase interest inscience and as an alternative to traditional science fairs andsingle-discipline tournaments.

• The Science Olympiad now has members in all 50 US states,totaling more than 13,500 actively participating K-12 schools.

• Each school team comprised of up to 100 students (50 in grades2-3, 50 in grades 4-5).

• The main goal is to learn about science through active,hands-on, group participation.

• Estimania requires up to 3-member teams to estimate answersto questions of measurement or numerical approximation.


Competitions and Contests: High Schools

Michigan Math Prize Competition

• Founded in 1958, the MMPC now includes over 10,000 highschool participants.

• Two-part examPart I: A 40 question, multiple-choice exam open to all Michigan

high schoolers

Part II: A 5 question, proof exam given only to the Top 1000 scorers

on Part I

• Part II has the feeling of an early age Putnam exam.

• University faculty grade Part II.

Michigan institutions use the competition as a way to recruitstudents.


Competitions and Contests: National

The MAA American Mathematics CompetitionsThe MAA American Mathematics Competitions (MAA AMC)identifies, recognizes, and rewards excellence in mathematicsthrough a series of national contests.

• American Mathematics Contest 8 (AMC 8),



• American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), and

• United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO).

These competitions lead to the selection of the US team for theInternational Mathematical Olympiad.

A number of organizations/companies also have materials availablefor problem-solving, e.g., the Art of Problem Solving.


Competitions and Contests: Modeling Competition

SIAM and Moody’s Mega Math Challenge

• Three to five junior and/or senior high school students make upa team.

• Students work on the an open-ended modeling, real-worldproblem over a 14-hour (weekend) span.

• Students may use any free and publicly available resources, butmay not seek help.

• Started in 2006, and held only in New York, this year studentsfrom 45 US states and Washington, D.C. will participate.

• Past problems are available for downloade.g., 2013 Waste Not, Want Not: Putting Recyclables in Their Place

and 2012 All Aboard: Can High Speed Rail Get Back on Track?

This contest is similar to the weekend Mathematical Competitionin Modeling for undergraduates.


Longer Programs: Math Fairs

New York Metropolitan Math Fair

• High school students in the New York metropolitan area submitpapers.

• Students compete in 4 levels, essentially based on currentcoursework.

• The paper should demonstrate “substantial and authenticmathematical work of the student.” Students work on papersfor entire school year.

• Judges receive papers in advance and then students givetalks/present posters in front of judges.

The term Math Fair has been adopted by others, including facultyat the University of Alberta. Their version is for non-competitiveproblem-solving.


Longer Programs: Summer Residential Programs I

Michigan Math and Science Scholars Program

• Residential or commuter, two-week program for high schoolstudents. Students from all over the world attend.

• Students meet 6 hours a day in a classroom and a computer labwith about 15 students per class.

• Courses are more focused and cover more material than anundergraduate class, but covers it less rigorously.

• Besides exposure to content, students experience living on acollege campus.

Other examples include . . .

The Summer Mathematics Program for High School Students at the University

of Utah, Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth, MIT Summer Program,

MathWorks at Texas State University San Marcos, etc.

Some programs specialized for pre-college teachers (e.g., CMI-PROMYS:

Clay Math Institute-The Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists).


Concluding Remarks

Benefits for . . .

• Students benefit in many ways already mentioned.

• Host institutions/organizations gain exposure and can recruitstudents.

• Faculty can introduce areas of mathematics for which they feelpassionate.

• Faculty benefit from explaining ideas from first principles, oftenresulting in insights into research.

A Few Resources

Math Circles http://www.mathcircles.org

Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle School Studentshttp://www.moems.org/program.htm

SIAM and Moody’s Mega Math Challenge

http://m3challenge.siam.org.


http://www.mathcircles.org

http://www.moems.org/program.htm

http://m3challenge.siam.org

Thank you.


opportunities for pre-college students: circles, competitions, … · 2020-07-20 · math circles...

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