February 1, 2014 – “AMC 10/12 Problem Session”

The AMC 10A/12A is on February 4th and the AMC 10B/12B is on February 19th.  If you’d like a chance to learn some interesting tips and techniques to help with these competitions, then please join us for this enlightening Math Circle.  Adrian Andreescu, Vinjai Vale, and Dr. Titu Andreescu will be presenting problems to challenge and delight.

If you have yet to sign up for these tests and your school does not offer them, there is still room for both dates (these testing sites are not sponsored by Metroplex Math Circle).  Registration will be held outside the math circle room, ECSS 2.201.

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January 25, 2014 – Emily Herzig – “Matrix Operations and Applications”

Matrices are an extremely useful concept – they are widely used in many areas of mathematics, science, engineering, and data analysis.  This talk will provide a peek into what can be done with matrices in a few of these contexts.  We will start by discussing what a matrix is, how the basic arithmetic operations are defined, and some useful properties, and then we’ll explore some simple applications in linear algebra, geometry, and data analysis.

**Remember, we’ll be meeting in room ECSS 2.201

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January 18, 2014 – First Metroplex ARML Team Practice

Please join Dr. Titu Andreescu and Mathew Crawford as they offer an American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) session for students interested in learning more about the contest and wishing to be exposed to the types of problems they would encounter.  This will be a very interactive math circle where students will have the opportunity to work together to solve interesting problems. Here is the plan for this first practice as detailed by Mathew Crawford:

• We plan to talk about our goals for the team.
• Discuss the rules and format for ARML, the primary event for the Metroplex Math Team
• Practice three of the four rounds from a past ARML contest (Individual, Team, and Relay)

We will practice the fourth ARML round (the Power Round) as the Metroplex Math Team participates in the ARML Power Contest the following weekend.

For this first contest, we’re picking an ARML contest that isn’t from the past few years both in hopes that fewer students have seen the problems and also because the problems from older contests are a little more accessible to beginners. We plan to use more recent practice problems as the team progresses.

Veterans of ARML are encouraged to show up to this first practice to help make new students comfortable with the process and also because leadership matters—and we will practice like we play, as a team.

If you know of talented high school students or extremely motivated younger students in the Dallas Metroplex area who may want to attend this event, please pass this link along.

**Please Note – we are in a new room ECSS 2.201.  http://www.utdallas.edu/locator/ECSS_2.201_P

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January 11, 2014 – Mathew Crawford “Mathematical Research as Problem Solving”

Research is one of the more difficult aspects of education to provide for students. New research, by its nature, often involves large time commitments, and there are additional skills involved in communicating research that take time to develop. As a result, many students find the nature of research to be mysterious and simply don’t know how to get started. That’s a shame, because mathematical exploration rewards us on many levels.

One solution is to create problems (pun intended). In this talk, we will take a look at a few cool problems (some of the really cool ones, in fact) and discuss how they were or might have been the result of “miniature research projects”. We will then ourselves participate in the process. We will start with some brainstorming, playing, and doodling, just to see where it leads. We will synthesize some of the ideas into original problems and challenges of our own. It is even possible that some of the ideas lead to more interesting projects.

This talk is friendly for a very wide audience. If you know some math, you can play, and playing is part of the research process!

**Please Note – we are in a new room ECSS 2.201.  http://www.utdallas.edu/locator/ECSS_2.201_P

AMC 10A/12A signups will take place after the lecture for students whose schools do not offer the test.  Registration is $5 in order to sign up.

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