Re: summer plans

[Joshua Zucker]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Seeger, Stacey
<sse...@graniteschools.org> wrote:
> I have been participating in TMCs here at the University of Utah.  I have benefited in so many ways.  Not only do I get to play with mathematics (something some of my students absolutely reject as a possibility), but I also get to spend time with some incredibly brilliant teachers from around the state as well as collaborating with the various extraordinary professors from the U of U.  There is a very strong community here and it is great.

That's wonderful! I'd be interested to hear more about how it becomes
a collaboration with the professors, rather than more like a math
class or a one-way communication from professors to teachers. Some
circles have experimented with having sessions co-led by university
person and a middle school person, for example. What happens in your
group?

> I have been offered 6 weeks of full time summer teaching, but it goes across our Teacher's Math Circle Summer Workshop.  I hate to let money influence my decisions particularly because I thoroughly enjoy the summer workshops, but this year's scheduling makes me choose.

I wonder if you can find another location where the summer workshop is
happening at a week at the very start or end of the summer, when it
wouldn't conflict? There's the drawback (a big one!) of not getting
to know your local people, but it may be a way to come close to doing
both, and the money you earn from summer school can pay any necessary
travel expenses if the circle you're visiting doesn't have the budget
to cover them. You might make some other interesting connections,
too! You'd certainly be welcome at http://oebtc.mathcircles.org/ if
you want to come. (And not just you, but anyone reading this, of
course! We're also interested in working with elementary teachers
there, so if you know anyone who teaches the younger grades and is
frustrated by their inability to participate in a middle school
teachers' circle, let us know. They would probably have to provide
transportation, but we would provide housing and food.)

--Joshua Zucker

[Kate Little]

Hi - I have an informal "Girls Math Club" that I led last summer, and run it again this summer.  Last summer we folded hexagonal origami boxes, and then created algebraic formulas that used the side length of the square paper to predict the short and long diameters of the folded box.  This was fun and intriguing to the girls, and they got something to take home and keep little doodads in.  We may do more origami-math this summer, perhaps folding tesselations, but I am also considering 2 different musical topics.  The first is learning to create and use matrices to help locate tone rows in serial piano pieces by Webern.  The other option is to use/practice ratio calculations to explore various harpsichord tunings (Pythagorian, perfect, well-temperment and equal-temperment) based on A-415 and A-440.  If we do this, I am hoping to borrow a harpsichord so that we can actually do the tunings and listen to the musical effects of the various wavelength ratios.  Several of the girls are pianists, so in either case, they'll be able to play the music that we study.  It is very rewarding for them when connect the abstract mathematical concepts to physical and practical reality. - Kate, also in Utah.