Japheth Wood

Author: japheth

  • Canada/USA Mathcamp article

    Here’s a wonderful article I just read about (Canada/USA) Mathcamp:

    Finding Nirvana in Numbers

    https://simonsfoundation.org/mathematics-physical-sciences/news/-/asset_publisher/bo1E/content/finding-nirvana-in-numbers?redirect=/mathematics-physical-sciences/news

    Mathcamp is a summer math enrichment program for high school students that boasts an incredible alumni base of mathematicians, whose instructors are also something of a dream team. They move campuses from summer to summer, and are able to roll out each summer’s program flawlessly. The program seems to be so successful, that I suspect it is now run completely by alums.

    One wonderful thing about how Mathcamp is organized, is that this flexibility makes it replicable to some extent. Take for example Mathpath, a similar program, but for middle school students. Also, the Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving (SPMPS) for underserved middle school students. In some sense, both these programs “spawned” off of Mathcamp.

    In high school, I attended a similar program: The Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics or HCSSiM. The Hampshire program, run by Hampshire College math professor David Kelly, has raised generations of mathematicians and also has an incredible group of alumni. Honestly, you can’t swing a dead cat at a math conference without hitting a HCSSiM alum. (Please don’t bring your dead cat to the next math conference. Bring a yellow pig.)

    The HCSSiM program seems less replicable, but that hasn’t stopped alums who are recently getting started in the growing Math Circle movement. Take, for example, the New York Math Circle (NYMC), which has programming for high school and middle school students (and also teachers; more information on that soon!) and in Chicago, the soon-to-arrive Payton Math Circle. Another fairly recent math enrichment program started by an HCSSiM alum is the Math Prize for Girls contest. The Math Prize for Girls is working hard to encourage girls to achieve at the highest levels by offering incredible cash prizes. Check out their new blog! These efforts all involve HCSSiM alumni.

    Out of curiosity, if you know of other math enrichment groups run by HCSSiM alums, please leave me a comment.

    All of these math enrichment opportunities are wonderful, but still out of reach for most students who show interest, motivation and potential in mathematics. The Math Prize for Girls is a step in the right direction, and an even more ambitious project is the Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving mentioned above.

    How can the math community provide enrichment opportunities to underserved students who are just out of the loop? (Please leave me a comment if you have an idea). Is the notion of mathematical talent, so often mentioned, actually damaging, as my friend Ben Blum-Smith suggests in his blog? How could mathematical resources best be used to offer high quality math enrichment to interested students? What about students are apathetic or traumatized by math?

    I plan to come back to these topics and more, so stay tuned!

  • Two Summer 2011 Middle School Math Programs

    I just heard from Steve Maurer, the academic director of MathPath, a summer math program for middle school students. His program has run since 2002, and the math instructors are something of a dream team, featuring some famous mathematical names such as John Horton Conway (well-known genius mathematician), Titu Andreescu (who runs the American Math Competitions) and Sam Vandervelde (author of Circle in a Box).

    This program seems ideal for middle school students who are already budding mathematicians. They’ve previously recruited students who have done well at math competitions, but are now making a concerted effort to reach out to math circle participants who are motivated by the excitement of mathematics itself. I hope this new effort succeeds! Teachers and math circle organizers: please send some great students towards MathPath!

    MathPath
    Dates: Sunday, June 26 to Sunday, July 24, 2011
    Location: Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO

    Another really interesting summer math program for middle school students that I’m in contact with is brand new this year, the Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving (SPMPS). This program also has ties to the high school level Canada USA Mathcamp (http://www.mathcamp.org/) but its target audience is quite different: underserved New York City middle school students with talent in math. One goal is to set these students on their own math path and to open up access for them to the wealth of high school math programs enjoyed by students at more privileged schools. I wonder how many mathematicians will eventually come out of SPMPS?

    I’ve been helping the director of SPMPS, Dan Zaharopol, to network with underserved middle schools in  NYC, and he’s off to an exciting start. Dan has sponsorship from the Art of Problem Solving Foundation to start his program at Bard College this summer. It promises to be a great program, and I wish him luck!

    Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving
    UR: http://www.artofproblemsolving.org/spmps/
    Dates: Monday, July 11 to Monday, August 1
    Location: Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

  • Nice LaTeX Reference

    I just noticed that Wikibooks features a decent LaTeX reference: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX

  • The Grasshopper Problem

    This is my newest problem, to appear in the October 2010 issue of La Voz.

    What is this picture asking? Ben suggested that instead of bold black squares, I should have indicated the squares with something especially significant to grasshoppers. Something tasty or something dangerous?

    Where did this come from? This problem is related to a derivation of the formula for Primitive Pythagorean Triples: Find all relatively prime natural number triples (a,b,c) that satisfy the equation

    The first step in my favorite elementary number theory proof is to show that not both a and b are odd. This would imply that c is one of the shaded squares above: 2, 6, 10, 14, …

    Does the grasshopper land on a (boxed) square?

  • SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ORDER ALGEBRA AND LOGICS

    =========================
    FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
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    (Honoring Ralph McKenzie, Hiroakira Ono and Andrzej Wronski on the occasion of their 70th Birthdays)

    June 6-10, 2011

    Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
    =========================

    This meeting shares the goals of the conference with the same title, held Nashville in June 2007, and continues the tradition of related conferences in Prague, Novi Sad and Szeged.

    Recent years have witnessed increased research activity on the interface between logic and universal algebra. In particular, the use of algebraic methods has proved to be fruitful in the study of non-classical logics as well as in investigations related to the constraint satisfaction problem. The purpose of the conference is to bring together researchers from these fields to foster collaboration and further research.

    FEATURED AREAS
    The featured areas include, but are not limited to, the following (in alphabetical order):

    • Algebraic logic
    • Algorithmic problems in algebra
    • Applications of universal algebra to logics
    • Applications of universal algebra to the constraint satisfaction problem
    • Complexity and other algorithmic problems
    • Duality theory for algebraic structures
    • Lattice theory
    • Modal logics
    • Non-classical logics
    • Ordered algebraic structures
    • Ordered sets
    • Proof theory
    • Residuated structures and substructural logics
    • Tame congruence theory and applications
    • Topological methods in algebra and logic

    The scientific program consists of 50-minute plenary lectures, and 20-minute contributed talks.

    INVITED SPEAKERS

    • Libor Barto (Prague)
    • Nikolaos Galatos (Denver)
    • Mai Gehrke (Nijmegen)
    • Keith Kearnes (Boulder)
    • Tomasz Kowalski (Lisbon)
    • Tadeusz Litak (Leicester)
    • Petar Markovic (Novi Sad)
    • Miklos Maroti (Szeged)
    • Vicenzo Marra (Milan)
    • George McNulty (South Carolina)
    • George Metcalfe (Bern)
    • Daniele Mundici (Florence)
    • Kazushige Terui (Kyoto)
    • Matthew Valeriote (Ontario)
    • Ross Willard (Waterloo)

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
    Details regarding conference registration, submission of abstracts of contributing talks, and local accommodations will be included in the forthcoming second announcement.

    ORGANIZERS

    • Wieslaw Dziobiak, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
    • Pawel Idziak, Jagiellonian University
    • Marcin Kozik, Jagiellonian University
    • Constantine Tsinakis, Vanderbilt University

  • Bard Math Circle in Kingston

    View of the Kingston Library
    Kingston Library at 55 Franklin Street, Kingston, NY 12401

    Bard Math Circle meets in the Kingston Library

    The Bard Math Circle will host math activities in Kingston every second Saturday this fall, 1pm to 3pm.
    Each session will include time for puzzles and games, creative mathematical problem solving, and a hands-on math activity with a take-away.
    Meetings this fall: 1pm to 3pm on each second Saturday (September 11, October 9, November 13 and December 11) at the Kingston Library (55 Franklin Street, Kingston NY, 12401).
    First meeting: 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, September 11, 2010.
    Here is the library press release and posters:
    What is a Math Circle?

    According to the National Association of Math Circles,

    Mathematical Circles are a form of education enrichment and outreach that bring mathematicians and mathematical scientists into direct contact with pre-college students. These students, and sometimes their teachers, meet with mathematical professionals in an informal setting, after school or on weekends, to work on interesting problems or topics in mathematics. The goal is to get the students excited about the mathematics, giving them a setting that encourages them to become passionate about mathematics.

    This is certainly the case! The Bard Math Circle is hosted by Bard College mathematicians and math majors, and seeks to work directly with middle school students (although everyone is welcome) who already enjoy mathematics. Bring a friend along, and they may fall in love with math too.

  • Bard Math Circle meets in the Kingston Library

    I’m helping the Bard Math Circle start up math circle activities in the Kingston Library.

    Each session will include time for puzzles and games, creative mathematical problem solving, and a hands-on math activity with a take-away.
    Meetings this fall: 1pm to 3pm on each second Saturday (September 11, October 9, November 13 and December 11) at the Kingston Library (55 Franklin Street, Kingston NY, 12401).

    First meeting: 1pm to 3pm on Saturday, September 11, 2010.
    Please forward these posters (or download and print).

    Poster (Español) Circulo de Matemáticas en Kingston

    This math circle activity is also mentioned in the August 30, 2010 Kingston Community Builder.
    I’m grateful to Margie Menard, director of the Kingston Library, for sending out this press release.
    Thanks for helping me get the word out!

  • Following Math Blogs

    I’ve slowly been entering the world of math blogging, first by reading blogs, and now by posting a note occasionally on this blog. There is an amazing world of math bloggers out there, some I’m proud to know in person, and so many worth reading.

    Here’s a post claiming to be the top 25 classroom math bloggers: http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-25-blogs-for-math-in-the-classroom/, which may be the best list to get started. Give it a read!

  • Math Delights, a webpage.

    A wonderful website of Math Delights. Full of rich mathematical activities for 5-12 year olds. Collected by Nancy Blachman, founder of the Julia Robinson Math Festival.

  • Legacy of R.L. Moore Conference

    R.L. Moore
    Portrait of R.L. Moore

    Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is an exciting approach to mathematics education that has a track record and great potential. The challenge is how to you make this approach work in your classroom and for your students?

    I attended the annual Legacy of R.L. Moore Conference in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and hope to return sometime soon.

    The Legacy of R.L. Moore Project helps popularize this method and assist math educators to take steps to bring it to their classrooms.