Eide: Mathematical Minds

The Eide Neurolearning Blog is an interesting resource for keeping up with the current advances in neuroscience and brain imaging.  In a recent post they discuss the uniqueness of mathematically gifted minds.

It will not surprise math circle participants to hear that such brains approach math problems quite differently.  Traditional school programs may offer such students little support and it is the community of interest provided by a math circle or the time to play with hard problems that these students crave.

By temperament, strong math minds will tend to be introverted and have high focus and task persistence for activities of intrinsic interest. This may mean they are difficult to direct in the traditional or even non-traditional classroom (prefer studying lines of own interest), and they may be benefited particularly by mentors (often relatives or math teachers at higher levels of education) willing to discuss topics, ideas, and problems far in advance of their years.

The Eides also recommend the PBS video Fermat’s Last Theorem for aspiring mathematicians.

Fall 2008 Recap

This last semester marked some significant milestones in the first 3 years of the Metroplex Math Circle hosted by the University of Texas at Dallas.

Participation

Attendance for all Math Circle sessions was particularly high with at least 50 students, parents and teachers participating in each session.  This compares very favorably with many other math circles around the country.

Two of our sessions were particularly well attended.  The first session of the semester with Richard Rusczyk filled our regular room to capacity with over 104 attendees.  The special MMC event with Dr. Arthur Benjamin set a record with over 340 attendees from the local community.

Lecture Content and Speakers

As with all successful MMC semesters, Fall 2008 offered a great variety of pure and applied mathematics as well as new and returning speakers.

Topics this semester included:  combinatorics, cryptography,  math and finance, number theory, and Dr. Andreescu’s expert coaching for AMC 8, AMC 10 and AMC 12 preparation.

We were very glad to have returning speakers like Alicia Prieto Langarica, Dr. Paul Stanford, and of course Dr. Titu Andreescu.  We were also fortunate to have new speakers travel from around the country to share their knowledge with us including Chengde Feng, Richard Rusczyk, Dr. Bennette Harris, Simion Filip and Dr. Tanya Khovanova.

News and Events

An important paper, Cross-Cultural Analysis of Students with Exceptional Talent in Mathematical Problem Solving was published by Dr. Andreescu and his colleagues.  This paper set off a global debate in popular media including The New York Times,  Reuters India,  and Newsweek about the role of American culture in discouraging math achievement particularly among young women.

Metroplex Math Circle was also very happy to see a local math contest return to the Dallas area sponsored by the Malayalee Engineers Association of North Texas (MEANT).  Their event was very well attended by math circle participants who distinguished themselves in the contest.

Online Presence

Metroplex Math Circle has been very successful in supporting its local community in alignment with the goals and aspirations of the University of Texas at Dallas.   But we have also attempted to serve the global community and to promote the reputation of UTD through electronic media.

Since its launch in August, the new Metroplex Math Circle website has had over 8,600 unique page views.

The Yahoo Group currently has 97 members and is used to distribute information on upcoming events and to support discussions by students, parents and faculty members.

Metroplex Math Circle is also interconnecting to the global problem solving community through The Art of Problem Solving and the MSRI Math Circle Directory.

In 2009 we will continue to experiment with new media including an outpost on Facebook.

This semester was only successful due to the following contributions:

• Generous sponsorship from the University of Texas at Dallas
• Speakers willing to invest significant time to prepare lectures and travel great distances to share their love of problem solving
• Parents sufficiently committed to the education of their students that they are willing to sacrifice a significant fraction of their weekends
• Students who are willing to be attentive throughout the lectures and who are inspired to work on problems and ideas raised by math circle
• And of course none of this would exist were it not for the original inspiration and continuing direction of Dr. Titu Andreescu

Boston Globe: Colleges Scour China for Top Students

This was an interesting article earlier in the month about the strong interest that elite universities are taking in recruiting the best students from China. William Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s admissions dean, has the following to say in the article:

Even fifth-graders in Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, who as adults will face international competition for jobs, should begin beefing up their academic résumés if they want a shot at an Ivy League education, Fitzsimmons said.

“We’re trying to send a message to young people, as young as primary school, to make the most of their studies,” he said, “because they’ll be competing with students around the world later on.”

It won’t surprise Math Circle participants but the qualities that are attracting elite universities to China are mathematics and problem solving abilities.

The first Shing-Tung Yau High School Mathematics Awards, named for the Harvard math professor who organized it, drew more than 900 students from all corners of the country. The 40 finalists who assembled for three days in Beijing had spent the past six months preparing to shine – not only for the judges, which included three Harvard professors, but also for the admissions deans they would meet.

“This is a historic event,” Fitzsimmons said. “We’re trying to get out the word that Harvard is world class in math, science, and engineering, not just in the humanities.”

…Professor Yau, chairman of Harvard’s math department who conceived of last month’s competition, has returned to his homeland to not only spur the improvement of math education in China through the contest, which rewards students for creativity and collaboration, but also to help funnel a generation of Chinese high school students into America’s premiere colleges.

This competition will enhance the experience for everyone attending US universities, but it also requires that students prepare themselves to compete against this new international standard.  Programs like the AMC contests and Math Circles are intended to do just that.  The article ends with this comment about a boy who had been profiled.  I think Math Circle participants will find it very familiar even if the report finds it remarkable:

The next morning, a Saturday, Tiger showed up at his school’s weekly math club and spent three hours learning about number theory – “just for fun,” he said.

To read the full article please click on the logo below:

Dr. Arthur Benjamin Recap

Dr. Titu Andreescu and Dr. Arthur Benjamin

Metroplex Math Circle’s first ever Special Presentation was a great success!  Over 330 people attended Dr. Arthur Benjamin’s presentation which demonstrated amazing feats of mental calculation.

Dr. Benjamin amazed the crowd with his ability to multiply and square 4 and 5 digit numbers in his head.  But unlike other magicians, because Dr. Benjamin’s “tricks” are based on mathematics he is willing to show the crowd his secrets.  One of the many things that Dr. Benjamin taught was the ability to quickly find the day of the week a person will celebrate their birthday in the past, present or future.

After his formal presentation, Dr. Benjamin took questions from the audience and gave informative and entertaining responses.  One such question led to a rare singing performance of a song about Pi!  After the performance, Dr. Benjamin was extremely generous with his time signing autographs and talking with the students.

Attendees had high praise for Dr. Benjamin and his performance, including:

“This was FANTASTIC! I have always wanted to know how to figure out what day of the week a birthday was on. Now I can do that and square a 2 digit number in my head! I will be bugging friends with that parlor trick for a while….I am worse than the kids LOL Emma and Olivia couldn’t go to sleep they were still so excited from the presentation.”

“Our whole family attended and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation an Encore would be wonderful!”

“My family enjoyed Dr. Benjamin tremendously.  We could have listened to him all night.  Thank you so much for having him at Mathcircle.  It was truly a night to remember.”

“My husband and daughter attended last night and really enjoyed the presentation. Thanks to all who worked to put it together!!”

Please feel free to post your own comments or questions in the comments section.

Math Circe Profile: Berkeley

It might be interesting to look at several of the thriving Math Circles around the country.  The Berkeley Math Circle has an excellent site with monthly contest problems available for download.  Berkeley is also an excellent example of the positive impact that a Math Circle can have on its community.  Here is some information from the Berkeley site on their outstanding alumni:

The success of Berkeley Math Circle in identifying and fostering talent is striking. Although the BMC only started in 1998, the 6-member team at the International Math Olympiad (held in Washington, D.C., July 2001) included 3 members from this program:

• Gabriel Carroll, graduated from Harvard as a math major and currently attending the Ph.D. program in Economics at MIT. He has won 2 Gold and 1 Silver medals at the IMO (including one perfect score in 2001), and won the Putnam competition 4 times. He was the grand prize BAMO winner 3 times.

• Tiankai Liu, now at Harvard, won 3 Gold medals at the IMO. He attended the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Duluth, Minnesota in Summer 2007.

• Oaz Nir has won 1 gold and 1 silver medal and has graduated from Duke University as a math major.

The three Berkeley Math Circle students contributed to the USA’s second-place finish among over 80 countries at the International Mathematics Olympiad in 2001. In 2002, students from the Berkeley Math Circle and BAMO continued to do exceptionally well in mathematics competitions. Over the years, a number of Berkeley Math Circle students were among the top twelve winners of the USA Math Olympiad, and one was among the five students in the US with a perfect score: Inna Zakharevich (Henry Gunn High School, Palo Alto, Currently a student at Harvard University). Several other Circle students qualified for the summer training program of the US team several years in a row. Evan O’Dorney, only in 8th grade, qualified among the top 24 students for the training of the USA Math Team in Summer 2007. He further won the Grand Prize at BAMO 2007 with a perfect score. Additionally, he has been a three-time finalist and 2007 Champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C.

Among other famous alumni of BMC and BAMO, it is worth mentioning Maxim Maydanskiy who tied for first place with Gabriel Carroll at BAMO 2001. Maxim was admitted to UC Berkeley, and upon recommendation from the BMC circle coordinator, Dr. Stankova, his Circle and Olympiad activities played a major role in awarding him the Regent’s scholarship, the most prestigious UC Berkeley scholarship for entering undergraduates. While at UC Berkeley, he also attended the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Duluth, Minnesota, and is currently a Ph.D. student in Mathematics at MIT.

NYT: Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Melanie Wood, former IMO team member and doctoral student at Princeton.

Dr. Andreescu’s study is getting global attention including this widely read New York Times article. While the article and study describe the problem in great detail, we are fortunate that one of the solutions is the community provided by MMC and other Math Circles.

Richard Rusczyk Recap

The first Math Circle of the 2008-2009 season succeeded on multiple levels. In its third year, Metroplex Math Circle finally exceeded the capacity of its current (large) lecture hall with over 100 students, teachers and parents in attendance. We were pleased to see many friends return, but even more new faces who were discovering Math Circles for the first time.

Comparative Advantage

Richard Rusczyk’s talks also exceeded all expectations. His first lecture was on the concept of comparative advantage and the benefits of free trade which many adults fail to grasp. Like many lessons in Math Circle, Mr. Rusczyk allowed the students to discover the meaning of the concept by playing out a game between two imagined countries. “Games” and the importance of “play” would be stressed throughout the day.

Option Pricing

The second segment introduced the audience to the principles of market prices and call options. With the current turmoil on Wall Street, parents were just as interested in this topic as the students. Mr. Rusczyk presented the students with a problem that he would use when he was recruiting for D.E. Shaw. Only the best students from elite schools ever made it to this stage in the interview process and apparently all but a handful (accomplished problem solvers) ever answered the problem correctly.

Life After MATHCOUNTS

In his final lecture, Richard Rusczyk sent students, parents and teachers home with a great deal to consider. He spoke very frankly and persuasively about the short comings of the standard school curriculum. But rather than just criticize, he also laid out concrete ways that students, parents and teachers can all improve the situation.

We won’t attempt to summarize this excellent talk particularly since an early version of the slides can be accessed below. However, a couple of themes should be highlight. First was his emphasis on play and the importance of giving students the time and freedom to work on challenging problems. A second theme was the importance of building a math community for young problem solvers, and the central role that a Math Circle can play. Finally, Mr. Rusczyk endorsed what many of us have already discovered, that Dr. Titu Andreescu’s books and leadership have been critical to the Renaissance in global problem solving.

Richard Rusczyk has committed himself to fulfilling the principles in his presentation by founding the Art of Problem Solving. Please take the time to see his presentation and the other excellent resources he has collected and developed.

Coming Prepared to Math Circle

Math Circle is a very inexpensive activity since all of the costs are generously underwritten by UT Dallas.  The only materials needed are pencil and paper.  Calculators are not necessary and not encouraged.

Some students find it useful to have a math notebook or a binder to collect notes and handouts from various sessions.  At the end of a semester these notes can be very useful for contest preparation or further study.

Math Circles and USAMO Qualification

The San Diego Math Circle (SDMC), like our own Metroplex Math Circle, has been a leader in identifying talented young problem solvers.  On their beautifully redesigned web site, they have an interesting discussion of the impact their math circle has had on the number of USAMO qualifiers from their community.

The following chart shows the strong correlation between the rise in USAMO success and the founding of SDMC in 2002.  Click on the chart to read the rest of the page on Olympiads and Olympians.

Metroplex Math Circle RSS Feed

To stay current on all announcements and articles from the Metroplex Math Circle you might consider subscribing to the RSS feed. RSS feeds allow you to to read updates to all of your favorite blogs and sites through a single interface. MMC chose a blog format to keep its community of students and friends aware of upcoming MMC meetings as well as other events like contests that may be of interest.

Please click on the icon below if you would like to subscribe.

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