Events of 2009

South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development: Jan 9, 2009 – May 14, 2009; Working with administrators, curriculum leaders, and teachers, we identified ways to strengthen math instruction for students at many Title 1 Primary Centers in South Bend.
Math Academy and Family Math: Jan 11, 2009 – May 28, 2009; The Math 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. On Sunday afternoons, the first hour of Math Academy features a Family Math activity to engage younger students in fun mathematics.
Coquillard Primary Center Class Visits: Jan 12, 2009 – May 14, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we observed classes and led hands-on activities in many classrooms at Coquillard Primary Center.
Lincoln Primary Center Class Visits: Jan 12, 2009 – May 14, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we observed classes and led hands-on activities in many classrooms at Lincoln Primary Center.
Perley Primary Center After School Adventure Origami Class: Jan 14, 2009 – Mar 11, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we led a weekly origami class as part of Perley Primary Center's After School Adventure program.
Math Studio at Sample Street Boys and Girls Club: Jan 15, 2009 – May 14, 2009; 1st through 6th grade students at the Sample Street Boys and Girls Club stop by the Math Studio Room to try hands-on math activities. During the spring semester, our weekly sessions feature activities relating to fractions. We also offer other activities designed to strengthen computational skills and inspire student enthusiasm for math.
Advanced Mathematical Origami Class: Jan 18, 2009 – Apr 5, 2009; Explore the connection between math and origami! Use classic origami bases to create birds, fish, reptiles, and other animals. Construct polyhedra and create tessellations. Try your hand at inventing your own origami designs. Learn how math has revolutionized origami by extending the creative reach of folders. This class is for adults and children who have experience folding many different types of origami animals and shapes. Folds in this class will require patience and precision. The class is free of charge.
Navarre Intermediate Curriculum Leader Visits: Jan 20, 2009 – May 18, 2009; We meet periodically with math curriculum leaders at Navarre to discuss math professional development and student interventions.
Montessori Christian Science Night: Jan 20, 2009; Visitors to our station learned to fold Magic Pinwheels and Sonobe Polyhedra
St. Pius Class Presentations: Jan 23, 2009 – Feb 18, 2009; We presented an interactive talk about Chladni Patterns and Sophie Germain to St. Pius 3rd graders. We also assisted with judging the St. Pius Science Fair.
Grissom Middle School Class Presentations: Jan 23, 2009; Students at Grissom Middle School participate in a variety of math presentations.
Perley Primary Center Class Visits: Jan 27, 2009 – May 14, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we observed classes and led hands-on activities in many classrooms at Perley Primary Center.
HASTI Plumbing Workshop: Feb 5, 2009; Try a hands-on math and science activity that can be used in middle school classrooms to address several state math and science standards.
HASTI Origami Lessons: Feb 5, 2009; Stop by the NISMEC booth or the Mathematical Origami workshop at the Hoosier Association for Science Teachers Conference. Learn to fold magic pinwheels, Sonobe polyhedra, hyperbolic paraboloids, PHiZZ polyhedra, and other origami structures.
Science Alive -- Quilt Fractions: Feb 7, 2009; Participants create paper quilt blocks and analyze the fractions involved with their design.
Science Olympiad -- Experimental Design: Feb 14, 2009; High school students competing in Science Olympiad design and carry out experiments to determine the expansion potential of popcorn
Apprentice Academy Geometry and Trigonometry Class: Feb 23, 2009 – Apr 23, 2009; This 30 hour advanced math class is designed to assist skilled workers displaced by the recent economic downturn to learn additional skills that are in demand at local precision manufacturing shops. Students earn credit hours through Vincennes University.
Coquillard Primary Center Grade Level Meetings: Feb 24, 2009 – Mar 4, 2009; Before each quarter during the 2008 -- 2009 academic year, we met by grade level with all teachers at Coquillard Primary Center. We looked for ways to strengthen math instruction, introduced a math notebooking plan, and addressed questions about the curriculum at each grade level for the upcoming quarter.
Muessel Primary Center Class Visits: Mar 24, 2009 – May 14, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we observed classes and led hands-on activities in many classrooms at Muessel Primary Center.
Madison Primary Center Class Visits: Mar 24, 2009 – May 14, 2009; During the spring of 2009, we observed classes, met with administrators and teachers, and led hands-on activities in many classrooms at Madison Primary Center.
GED Class: Mar 31, 2009 – May 31, 2009; On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, we offer a GED Class for adult students, sponsored by the Adult Education Department of the South Bend Community School Corporation.
Great Circles Conference at MSRI: Apr 16, 2009 – Apr 17, 2009; We co-organized the first Great Circles Conference at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California. Mathematicians and teachers from around the United States and Canada met for two days to network and share ideas for leading math outreach activities for children and teachers.
Next Steps Conference: Apr 24, 2009; Our community's second annual Next Steps in Math and Science Education conference brought together approximately 100 educators, business owners, parents, professors, government officials, administrators, and community leaders to discuss strategies for improving STEM education. Bertha Carson-King gave the keynote address, and a panel of business, community, and education leaders provided context for this issue. Breakout sessions allowed participants to network and brainstorm next steps for improving math and science education in our community.
Panelist for Capstone Presentation at Holy Cross College: Apr 27, 2009; We provided an external panel member for a senior capstone presentation at Holy Cross College. This formal presentation is much like a thesis defense, with special emphasis on the student’s growth in the college’s core competencies and learning outcomes. The student’s evaluation panel poses questions about the student's portfolio and presentation, drawing out what the student has learned throughout the program.
Philosophy and Calculus Mini-Course: May 11, 2009 – May 15, 2009; During this week-long mini-course, we approached Calculus from and intuitive and philosophical perspective. We used a motion detector to find derivatives and integrals "by graph" instead of computationally. We also explored Xeno's paradoxes, discussed properties of real, rational, and natural numbers, considered Berkeley's criticisms of Calculus as initially formulated by Newton and Leibniz, and explored how Cauchy's introduction of limits resolved these difficulties.
IUSB Teacher Math Preparation Meeting: May 20, 2009; We invited a group of representatives from the IUSB Math Department, the IUSB School of Education, and the South Bend Community School Corporation to join in a conversation about the current state of teacher preparation in mathematics in our community.
Math and Technology Academy: Jun 3, 2009 – Jul 31, 2009; 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.
Family Math -- Math Trail: Jun 7, 2009 – Jun 14, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. Our topic on June 7th and June 14th was Math Trails. On June 7th, students followed a Math Trail along two blocks in downtown South Bend. Afterwards, they discussed their solutions to the problems they encountered. On June 14th, students created their own questions for a Math Trail and discussed what needs to be included in a question for it to be solvable.
Ivy Tech Middle School Math Workshop: Jun 8, 2009 – Jun 19, 2009; Math teachers from each of the ten intermediate centers in South Bend Community School Corporation participated in a two week teaching techniques workshop. The overall themes of the workshop were providing experiences that build conceptual understanding, and helping students to make the transition from pre-algebraic to algebraic reasoning without losing their problem solving skills. Sessions related to fractions, algebra, and project based learning incorporating multiple math skills.
Family Math -- Nets of Polyhedra: Jun 28, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was nets of polyhedra. Participants taped cardstock squares together to form candidate nets and predicted which of them would fold into cubes. We also decorated and folded nets to make other polyhedra to take home.
Math Circle Teacher Training Institute: Jul 5, 2009 – Jul 11, 2009; About 30 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. 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.
South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development: Jul 20, 2009 – Jul 22, 2009; Working with administrators, curriculum leaders, and teachers, we identified ways to strenthen math instruction for students at many Title 1 Primary Centers in South Bend. We co-led summer training sessions for curriculum leaders and teachers to prepare for new initiatives for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Reasoning Mind Math Circle Conference Call: Jul 31, 2009; The founders of <a href="http://www.reasoningmind.org">Reasoning Mind</a>, a math program featuring a hybrid of online and face-to-face instruction, are planning to launch their own Math Circle in the Houston, Texas area in the fall of 2009. We spoke by phone to answer various questions that they had about the Math Circle format.
Project NeXT Session on K-12 Outreach: Aug 5, 2009; Project NeXT invited us to participate on the panel for the K-12 Outreach Session during Math Fest in Portland, Oregon. We presented an overview of the needs of K-12 school districts that can be addressed by mathematicians. We also outlined our outreach efforts to South Bend area schools as well as our public outreach programs.
SIGMAA on Circles Presentation: Aug 8, 2009; The SIGMAA on Circles invited us to present during their session at Math Fest in Portland, Oregon. We gave an overview of our work with schools and our outreach efforts. We also shared Math Circle topics that have proven to be popular with upper elementary and middle school students in our programs.
Math and Technology Academy: Aug 17, 2009 – Dec 17, 2009; 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.
South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development: Aug 17, 2009 – Dec 15, 2009; Working with administrators, curriculum leaders, and teachers, we identified ways to strengthen math instruction for students at many Title 1 Primary Centers in South Bend.
New York City Math Circle Consultation: Aug 18, 2009; Jesse Johnson, a teacher who is forming a new Math Circle in New York City, asked for some information about leading a Math Circle class on tessellations for high school students.
School City of Mishawaka Consulting and Professional Development: Aug 24, 2009 – Dec 20, 2009; Working with administrators and teachers, we supported the implementation of a new math program for high-ability students in 4th through 6th grades at all seven elementary schools. We also worked with John Young Middle School teachers to examine math instruction at the middle school level.
Meeting with Advanced Twin Branch 6th Graders: Aug 24, 2009 – Aug 25, 2009; Amanda met with two 6th grade students in Caryn Ellison's classroom at Twin Branch Elementary School in Mishawaka. The two students are ready to launch into an algebra book that requires the use of a graphing calculator. Amanda oriented the students to the use of the TI-83 graphing calculator and met with Caryn briefly the following evening to answer additional questions that emerged.
Apprentice Academy Basic Math Classes: Aug 25, 2009 – Oct 8, 2009; This 30 hour basic math class is designed to assist skilled workers displaced by the recent economic downturn to sharpen basic math skills including fractions, problems solving, and basic algebra. Students earn credit hours through Vincennes University.
Consulting for Grissom Middle School Professional Development Sessions: Sep 1, 2009 – Dec 17, 2009; During the 2009--2010 academic year, Dr.~Julie Turner, a professor of psychology at Notre Dame is training middle school teachers at Grissom Middle School to use principals of motivation theory to improve student engagement. Dr.~Amanda Serenevy served as a math content specialist to help plan these trainings during Dr.~Turner's May planning session.
Consulting with Brookline Math Circle: Sep 5, 2009; We conferred by email and phone with Kate Hendrix of the Brookline Math Circle to work out some questions about formulas for integer sequences.
Family Math -- Divisibility Tests: Sep 13, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was divisibility tests. Participants used tokens and base ten blocks to investigate divisibility tests for base ten.
Community Research Project: Sep 13, 2009 – Dec 6, 2009; Our Community Research Project provides participants of all ages with the opportunity to investigate an open problem and publish their results. This semester, we are investigating the following topic: How can we construct a fair three-sided cylindrical die? For example, a "short" cylinder will almost always land on one of the ends and rarely on the side. A tall cylinder will almost always land on its side and rarely on an end. How should we construct the die so that if we label the ends with "1" and "2" and the side with "3" each number will have an equal chance of coming up?
Family Math -- Binary Counters: Sep 20, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was the binary number system. We solved King Arthur's communication problems, learned how to represent binary numbers using several techniques, and practiced counting in binary.
Art Beat: Sep 26, 2009; Drop by our booth to learn to fold a Sonobe polyhedron or a Magic Pinwheel.
Family Math -- Coin Mysteries: Sep 27, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was coin mysteries. Participants used algebraic thinking to solve and create puzzles about coins hidden in a bag.
Family Math -- Coin Mysteries: Sep 27, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was coin mysteries. Participants used algebraic thinking to solve and create puzzles about coins hidden in a bag.
Family Math -- Fairies and Giants: Oct 4, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was fairies and giants. Participants used proportional reasoning to reconstruct the sizes of giants and fairies based on the sizes of their fingerprints.
Family Math -- Fairies and Giants: Oct 4, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was fairies and giants. Participants used proportional reasoning to reconstruct the sizes of giants and fairies based on the sizes of their fingerprints.
Consulting with Winston-Salem Math Circle: Oct 9, 2009 – Oct 19, 2009; We conferred by email and phone with Jim Kuzmanovich of the Winston-Salem area in North Carolina about possibly starting a Math Circle or other outreach program.
ETHOS Science Spooktacular: Oct 9, 2009 – Oct 10, 2009; Learn to fold a Sonobe polyhedron at Elkhart's Hands-On Science Center
Family Math -- Ancient Number Systems: Oct 18, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was ancient number systems. Participants learned how to count and do arithmetic using Roman, Mayan, and Chinese number systems
Family Math -- Ancient Number Systems: Oct 18, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was ancient number systems. Participants learned how to count and do arithmetic using Roman, Mayan, and Chinese number systems
Family Math -- Games and Probability: Oct 25, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was games and probability. Participants analyzed several popular games to determine what outcomes are most likely and how that relates to strategies for playing.
South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development: Oct 27, 2009 – Dec 1, 2009; Teachers and curriculum leaders from throughout the South Bend Community School Corporation participated in grade-level workshops focusing on problem solving.
Eastwood Elementary Science Night: Oct 28, 2009; Visitors to our station learned to fold Magic Pinwheels and Sonobe Polyhedra
First Fridays -- Kids Night: Nov 6, 2009; 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.
George Rickey Walk Family Day: Nov 7, 2009; The South Bend Museum of Art offers Family Days on most weekends. During this Family Day, we first learned modular origami to build several different kinds of shapes. During the second part of the event, we viewed six George Rickey sculptures on display this year in downtown South Bend. At each sculpture, we discussed related math, science, and art questions. South Bend Museum of Art curator Jessi Loyd walked with us to provide an artist's perspective on each piece.
Family Math -- Pythagorean Theorem: Nov 15, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was the Pythagorean Theorem. Participants used a rope with equally spaced knots to see how the ancient Egyptians constructed right triangles in order to build the pyramids. Participants also explored several proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. Finally, students discussed the amazing fact that the Pythagorean Theorem does not just apply to squares built on the legs and hypotenuse of a right triangle, but also applies to the areas of any similar figures analagously constructed.
South Bend Community School Corporation Consulting and Professional Development: Nov 17, 2009 – Jan 7, 2010; The South Bend Community School Corporation held a Teacher Academy during the 2009 -- 2010 academic year for thirty K-4 teachers. Meeting in groups of ten, teachers spent three full-time two-week sessions discussing classroom management, best practices in instruction, and understanding children from diverse cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. We provided each group of ten teachers with two days on best practices in mathematics instruction.
Ladies of Notre Dame Origami Night: Nov 18, 2009; We taught members of the Ladies of Notre Dame to fold origami polyhedra.
IUSB's Triton High School Visit Day: Nov 19, 2009; As part of IUSB's Triton High School Visit Day, we presented "Careers in Math, Science, and Technology" for the prospective college students.
Family Math -- Order of Operations: Nov 22, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was Order of Operations. Participants explored the consequences of not specifying an order for performing various arithmetic operations. Participants also tackled the four 4's challenge -- building each number from 1 to 50 using exactly four 4s, no other digits, and any operations.
Ladies of Notre Dame Origami Night: Dec 6, 2009; We taught children to make origami polyhedra and magic pinwheels at the annual holiday party for the Notre Dame Community Relations Department.
Grissom Middle School Class Presentations: Dec 11, 2009; Students at Grissom Middle School participated in a mathematical origami day.
Family Math -- Origami: Dec 13, 2009; Family Math provides an opportunity for grade school children and their families to have fun together while learning about a math topic. The topic for this session was Origami. Participants built Sonobe polyhedra, made Magic Pinwheels, and tackled more complicated modular origami such as Tom Hull's PHiZZ module and Tomoko Fuse's Star Kusadama.
Good Shephard Montessori Origami Presentation: Dec 17, 2009; Students at Good Shephard Montessori participated in a mathematical origami class.
Santa's Workshop Origami: Dec 20, 2009 – Dec 22, 2009; Participants learned to fold Sonobe polyhedra and Magic Pinwheels.

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