The IUSB Leadership Academy is a two-month summer program for high
school and entering college students. During the program, students
take several classes designed to prepare them for college. We
offered a math class for eleven of the high school students. Each
105-minute class included review of pre-algebra and algebra concepts
and a hands-on activity designed to show them how some of these
concepts apply to the real world. Students completed daily homework
assignments, quizzes twice a week, and took a pre-test and post-test
to chart their improvement over the three-week (twelve-session) program.
About 25 mathematicians, teachers, and other math enthusiasts from
around the country paticipated in this week-long institute at Notre
Dame led by Bob and Ellen Kaplan with assistance from Amanda
Serenevy and Leo Goldmakher. Participants experienced Math Circles
as students, shared ideas for starting Math Circles, led Math
Circles for children, and delved into a number of engaging
mathematical questions.
Math teachers from each of the ten intermediate centers in South
Bend Community School Corporation participated in two one-week
workshops at Ivy Tech Community College. The overall themes of the
workshop were project-based learning, innovative approaches to
problem solving, and incorporating technology in the middle school
classroom.
During the IUSB Leadership Academy Orientation we taught two
hands-on math activities to about 25 high school and entering
college students. Participants chose to investigate algebraic
patterns in families of polyhedra or to derive the formula for
regular polygons on the way to learning to build a Magic Pinwheel.
The Math and Technology Academy is a free program open to the
public. Students of all ages can get help with homework, work on
a guided independent study project, or try one of our hands-on
math activities.
Downtown South Bend, Incorporated sponsors a series of First Friday
events in downtown South Bend to highlight local businesses and
bring people together. November's event offered fun activities for
families with children. We participated by teaching modular origami
at Spark Fine Stationary on Michigan Street.
