School of the Mathematical Future starting this January

[Maria Droujkova]

The School of the Mathematical Future is organized by Natural Math family learning network, Math 2.0 interest group, and Peer to Peer University (P2PU). The goal is an open learning environment for collaborative projects in mathematics education. The general idea is to put together groups of like-minded peers to spend intensive six weeks researching and developing a topic. I hope to see a lot of you taking and leading courses.

P2P philosophy is a good match for what Math 2.0 Interest Group is doing for project and community leaders, and Natural Math for family educators. We are building on the success of the ongoing event series and research and development collaborations at Math 2.0, as well as local and online projects and a pilot Family Multiplication Study at Natural Math. Here is the timeline for leaders of the first round of courses:

• By January 10th Add your course's name to the list, and create a description page or fill the form at the Math Future wiki
  
• By January 10th Read the P2PU Course Design Handbook
• By January 10th Do the tasks at the P2PU course organizer checklist, including weekly activities draft (syllabus)
  
• By January 10th Subscribe to School of the Mathematical Future announcement and discussion email groups
• January 10th-25th P2PU orientation, discussions
• January 10th-25th Registration opens! Invite colleagues, network contacts and friends to become peers in your course
  
• January 26th courses start
  

The next round of courses will start in April. A lot of conversations we've been having within our communities, as well as research and development projects, lend themselves really well to the peer-to-peer course format. Think about it!

Here are the first seven courses, providing varied examples. There are two courses mostly for parents or educators working with families:

• Math-rich baby and toddler environments
• Psychology of mathematics learning

Three courses for the general audience:

• Math for game designers
• Short Calculus
• Introduction to Math Art (scroll to the form)
  

Two courses for teachers and researchers, and everybody interested in math ed:

• Rapid development and sharing of interactives (GeoGebra, screencasts, Models for Math remixer)
• Mathematical Curriculum Development (also a for-credit graduate course at Arcadia University, full semester - 14 weeks)

There is also a course for family math club leaders in the works. Anyone who loves a topic can facilitate a course. It is generally better to have two or more leaders per course, though one person has to be the contact on record. Among leaders of the seven courses above, there are people:

• Over sixty and under sixteen
• Currently working on high school diploma to holding doctorates
  
• Occupied as full-time parents, students, consultants, professors
• Who have led dozens of courses, or starting the first one
  

Together, we can create wonderful, meaningful experiences. Join the fun!

Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.