[NMScience] FW: The Math Circle founders speaking in Santa Fe

[Ellen Loehman]

*WHAT*:  Lecture: "Was Space Made for Feeding Mathematical Invention?"

*WHERE*: Great Hall, Peterson Student Center, St. John's College

*WHEN*: Friday, February 22, 8 p.m.

*WHO*:  Bob and Ellen Kaplan, The Math Circle, Harvard University

*COST*: This event is free of charge and open to the public.



*DESCRIPTION*:

The Kaplans will talk about the radical idea behind their Math Circle, while
illustrating this idea by holding a Math Circle session with the audience.
The Kaplans are holding a Math Circle Teacher Training Institute this summer
at Notre Dame, in order to train people from across the country ­ and abroad
­ in their approach.
*In addition to their lecture at St. John's College, the Kaplans will be
leading two after-school math circles at Santa Fe Prep: a teachers circle on
Tuesday, February 19, from 3:30 to 5:00, and a student (9-12 grade) circle
on Wednesday, February 20, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. Please contact James Taylor
(jtaylor at sfprep.org) if you are interested in participating in the teachers
circle, or bringing a participant to the student circle.

*What is the Math Circle?*

The Math Circle is a program of courses founded in 1994 by Bob and Ellen
Kaplan of Harvard University, designed for students who enjoy math and want
the added challenge of exciting topics that are normally outside the school
curriculum. Math Circle teachers are experienced, committed, and
enthusiastic, and its classes encourage a free discussion of ideas. While
the courses are mathematically rigorous, the atmosphere is friendly and
relaxed.


*History of The Math Circle*

Disturbed by the poor quality and low level of math education in the
country, Bob and Ellen Kaplan, along with their colleague Tomás Guillermo,
began The Math Circle at Harvard in September 1994. The first semester (ten
sessions) saw 29 students; they now enroll over 200 students, ranging in
ages from 5 to 17, and the courses they have taught in the intervening years
are many and varied:

 *For 5-7 year olds, topics include*: Sequences and Series, the Euclidean
Algorithm, Prime Numbers, Iteration, and Parity

 *For 7-9 or 9-11 year olds, topics include*: Cantorian Set Theory,
Fractions and Decimals, Eulerian and Hamiltonian Circuits, Polygon
Construction, Complex Numbers, Concurrency, and Weird Fractions

 *For 12-14 year olds, topics include*: Polyhedra, Periodic Decimals,
Propositional Calculus, The Fibonacci Sequence, Polygon Decomposition,
Krasnoselsskii's and Brouwer's Theorem, The Golden Mean, Information Theory,
Linear Algebra, and Taxicab Geometry

 *And for 15-17 year olds, topics include*: Projective Geometry, Induction
and the Pigeonhole Principle, Proofs and Refutations, Complex Analysis, Knot
Theory, Hyperbolic Geometry, Relativity, Fractals and Combinatorial Geometry

The Math Circle teachers are careful to choose topics which are unlikely to
be in the school curriculum - they see our role as widening and deepening
the river, rather than accelerating its flow between narrow banks. Some
courses appear at several levels: one of the glories of math is its constant
upward spiral of sophistication. What seems to be the Math Circle Secret is
their striving for understanding generated by the students' own conjectures
and counterexamples, rather than aiming to cover a certain body of material
in a fixed amount of time.