Math Circles and their role in Mathematics Education

1. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 Math Circles and their role in Mathematics Education Monika Kiss Saint Leo University February 6, 2014

2. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle? Math Circles are originally from Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria and other European countries in the 1930’s. The original goal was to cultivate mathematical talent and to continue to assist students’ problem solving skills beyond the classroom. In addition, the math circles were started to help students prepare for Math Olympiads. So, originally these were for the best of the best!

3. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle in the United States? The idea of outreach to pre-college students to get more involved in mathematics started about 30 years ago in the United States. The form of these outreaches were after school activities and summer programs. Formal Math circles did not start until the early 90’s.

4. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle in the United States? In the United States, when Math Circles started, the goals were originally to also cultivate the best of the best and to prepare them for the Math Olympiads, but as more and more people got involved the Math Circles started to have different missions, slightly. For every math circle you look at, their audience and therefore their mission is different. Let’s look at some examples!

5. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle in the United States? The Berkley Math Circle The New York Math Circle

6. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle in the United States? So, how does one start one of these Math Circles? Lucky for us, we have an organization that fully supports the starting of Math Circles. National Association of Math Circles at the MSRI center in Berkley California. http://www.mathcircles.org/

7. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle at Saint Leo University? After learning more and more about Math Circles over the years, I fell compelled to start one at Saint Leo University. There is only one other Math Circle in the entire state of Florida. We started in the spring of 2011. We had biweekly Saturday morning meetings. Then we had a week long summer camp to follow up.

8. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Cirlce at Saint Leo University? Activities from previous years Building Tetrahedron Kites Chemistry and Math Cracking The Code with Pringles Origami PHiZZ Coloring the World

9. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Cirlce at Saint Leo University?

10. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle at Saint Leo University?

11. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is a Math Circle at Saint Leo University? Our goal is to reach as many students as we can who are either wanting to learn more or just simply want to have some fun with math. Our target audience is middle and high school students. We are starting out and so we only have a small group of following.

12. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 What is the educational benefit? The benefit of Math Circles in mathematics education is that we create, hopefully curiosity in students to learn more mathematics and to be excited by it! Our goal is not to meet some kind of artificial standard that the curriculum requires. It is not in any way to teach students to study for FCATS.

13. Saint Leo University Founded in 1889 Conclusion Thank you so much for attending this session! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at monika.kiss@saintleo.edu.