Math Explorer’s Club (Grades 8–12)

With support from the National Science Foundation, graduate students have developed a collection of more than 40 mathematics modules that cover a wide variety of topics accessible to middle- and high-school students. During fall 2013 we will implement two of these modules at Cornell in what we call the “Math Explorer’s Club.”

When and Where

Six consecutive Saturday morning sessions, 10 AM – 12:15 PM
October 19 – November 23, 2013
Cornell University, Malott Hall, room 532

Sign up below if you plan to participate.
Previous offerings: Fall 2012, Spring 2013
If you’re willing to help us advertise, please use one of our posters.

Goal

Introduce new mathematical concepts and problem solving strategies to grades 8-12 students who will, in turn, communicate their new knowledge in public forums (i.e., through posters and/or presentations).

What to Expect

Interactive lessons in a cooperative and supportive learning environment = lots of fun!
(See recent coverage in the Cornell Chronicle.)

Module 1 — Topology and Geometry of Surfaces (Fall 2013)

In this module we will explore the world of surfaces-spaces that locally look like the plane. You will learn how to build surfaces and how to tell them apart. Along the way, you will play games like billiards and tic-tac-toe on donuts and Klein bottles. We'll also think about what you'd learn in geometry class if we lived on a different surface!

Module 1 will be led by Kristen Pueschel, a fourth-year mathematics graduate student. Kristen works with Professor Tim Riley in the area of geometric group theory. In her spare time, Kristen loves to garden, read, and tend to her small zoo of pets.

Module 2 — Games and Strategies (Fall 2013)

What is the similarity between games and life? For both, it's hard to look too far into the future. By putting our thoughts and analysis together in the coming weeks, we will hopefully be able to look farther ahead. We will start by analyzing strategies of simple games like Tic-Tac-Toe with the hope that these strategies will help with other games. If they don't, we can still try to create games for which these strategies are effective. This allows us to better understand the strength and limitation of the strategies as well as the peculiarities of the games.

Module 2 will be led by math graduate students Chor Hang Lam and Yao Liu. Chor came to the U.S. from Hong Kong as a high school student. In his spare time he likes to play basketball, play computerized musical instruments, and find patterns in games. Yao Liu is a fourth-year math Ph.D. student who also has an interest in natural science (physics in particular), history, and philosophy. Yao enjoys classical music and plays a little bit of violin. He enjoys teaching math, especially inspiring students with facts or insights that they don't normally see in textbooks.

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