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Advanced Algebra ChallengeChallenge your math skills! Explore the applications of algebra through the concept of mathematical models. As you apply your algebra skills to real-world problems and experiments, you will expand your appreciation for math and improve your grasp of the concepts involved. Algebra topics that will be used in your applications include slope, linear equations and inequalities, direct and inverse variation, graphing functions, quadratic equations, exponents, and growth and decay.
Grades: 6-8
Cryptography: Making and Breaking Secret CodesCreating secret codes, decoding encrypted messages, and understanding why it is safe to type a password on the Internet are all elements of cryptography: the study of making and breaking codes. In this class you will learn about shift ciphers, the Vigenere cipher, and the Enigma machine. You will also learn about the history of cryptography from the days of Julies Caesar to World War II. Through exciting hands-on projects you will put your problem solving skills to work to crack codes and create your own.
Grades: 3-5 or 6-8
Fun with FibonacciFind the hidden order behind pine cones, sea shells, tree branches, rabbits, and the Egyptian Pyramids encapsulated in a single number. Through investigations into statistics, Platonic solids, bee genealogy, plant growth, and architecture, you will discover ways to generate and uncover Fibonacci numbers. Next you will delve into the fascinating and beautiful world of Penrose tilings, creating some unique and gorgeous works of art with mathematical meaning.
Grades: 4-6 or 6-8
Geometry From Around the WorldExplore math through the lens of history and world cultures. Using mathematical tools, create models and plans for Greek buildings, the Egyptian Pyramids, Islamic Art, the Great Wall of China, and Native American designs. Learn Euclidean geometry and basic geometric constructs such as lines, points, angles, and shapes through hands-on activities. This is an advanced class for the math curious.
Grades: 6-8
Math TrekChallenge your thinking and problem solving skills in this exploration of number systems from around the world. Learn to use a Chinese abacus and Napier Rods for addition, subtraction and multiplication. Explore ancient Mayan, Hindu, and Babylonian numbers to design your own codes.
Grades: 2-3
Money $ MathInstead of learning equations and graphs, you will engage with simulations of economic mechanisms. Supply-and-demand will affect your production and profits as you struggle to maximize your financial gains. Working in pairs, you will play a variety of board games, like Settlers of Catan, Modern Art, Tinners’ Trail, and Stone Age, featuring various economic mechanisms, starting with simpler games and advancing to the more complex. You will learn to manage scarce resources, experience first-hand the importance of capital investment and development, and alter your plans as supply and demand fluctuates.
Grades: 6-8
Puzzles and Games for Math LoversChallenge yourself with the vast world of puzzles that make math fascinating. Stretch your thought processes with riddles, logic problems, Japanese Nanograms, mazes, and math games. In hands-on explorations into geometry you will create Pascal’s triangle, Pythagora’s wild triples, and build structures out of paper plates, including a grand tower of tetrahedron and the hexa-flexagon.
Grades: 1-3, 4-5, 6-8
Instructors - Mary Carroll
- Lindsey Dotson
- Soenke Hollstein
- Stephanie Foster
- Barbara Kerr
- Jim Mattingly
- Joe Wasserman
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