Lion's Eye Favorite: A Passion for Math
October 11, 2008
Students discussing a problem in advanced integrated mathematics
Talk to Exeter students about math and you'll hear a lot about problem solving and confidence building, along with secants and cosines. Exeter's method of teaching math – using problem sets authored by faculty, not textbooks – is at the heart of the excitement.
A typical mathematics class starts with students writing solutions to problems on the board. The entire class then discusses each of the problems – providing insights, asking questions and often developing new solutions collaboratively.
"The structure of the Exeter math program is different from the way textbooks present math," explains Natalie, a lower. "Instead of being given formulas, we learn why and how to solve problems. By the time we finish, we've really learned how to derive formulas independently." Margaret, an upper and member of the math club, agrees: "The math system at Exeter not only helps you learn the material well, but also teaches you lifelong skills. You learn how to work on problems without an obvious solution, how to face new problems without being told how to do them, and also how to present your ideas confidently at the board."
Students can choose from over 20 mathematics classes, with accelerated versions of many. The department offers four college-level courses which cover multivariable calculus, linear algebra, foundations of abstract mathematics and "Selected Topics," which targets the interests of the most advanced math students. This year, "Selected Topics" took on number theory in the fall, abstract algebra this term, with game theory planned for the spring.
Each summer, a group of the mathematics faculty meets to discuss and update the problem sets used in the classroom. "I think this is one of the most useful professional development projects," says Joyce Kemp, mathematics department chair, "because it promotes relaxed and detailed dialogue about the problem sets and how students learn math. We discuss the problems in great detail, as a small group. We talk about how students are doing with problems, which problems we should consider changing or removing, and how those changes would affect the larger math curriculum."
Students appreciate the close faculty involvement in the curriculum. "My math teachers have become more than just instructors," says Margaret. "They are fascinating people to talk to – about how they studied math when they were in high school or expanding on a topic you touched on in class. Outside of the math world, they are invaluable advisers. My current math teacher has also been my coach for three years."
The 40 students who make up the Exeter Math Club meet twice weekly for a total of four hours each week. Some of the students help Zuming Feng, math instructor, run the math club page of http://www.cogito.org/, a website sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
Many of them move on to compete in national and international competitions, often with coaching from faculty. Recently, Ashwin Suresh, co-captain of the math club, became a semifinalist in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, for his work developing a test for HIV.
Last summer, Sherry Gong, a senior, traveled to China as part of the first official American team to attend the China Girls Math Olympiad, where she won a gold medal. Feng, one of the American team's coaches, called this contest "the biggest and the best math event for female high school students in the world."
In June 2007, 22 students represented Exeter at the American Regions Mathematics League (ARML), and came home the national champions.
The 28 faculty members of the mathematics department bring to Exeter a wealth of teaching, publishing and coaching experience. Among them are Rick Parris, who recently authored two articles in the College Mathematics Journal. Parris is also the author of Peanut Software, a series of shareware math programs which grew out of Parris's teaching at Exeter, used by educators, students and mathematicians worldwide.
In addition to his work coaching the American team for the China Girls Math Olympiad, Feng coaches Exeter students who qualify for the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO). He is the coach of the U.S. team for the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO). He advises the Exeter Math Club and is the author and editor of many books. Among his titles are: A Path to Combinatorics for Undergraduates: Counting Strategies, the series Mathematics Olympiad Around the World, and a series on selected topics related to problems from the training of the USAMO/IMO teams. Since the summer of 2006, Feng has served as academic director of the AwesomeMath Summer Program. This coming summer, he will be joined by several current and former PEA students as program assistants and program coordinators. See a full list at http://www.awesomemath.org/staff.shtml#faculty.
The mathematics department runs two summer programs: the Exeter Math Institute and the Anja S. Greer Conference on Secondary School Mathematics, Science and Technology. The Exeter Math Institute is a one-week, professional development program for public middle and secondary school mathematics teachers. Each summer, faculty members travel to five or six cities in the US to provide training tailored to the needs of individual school districts. The Anja S. Greer Conference attracts as many as 300 educators from around the world, who come to Exeter for weeklong seminars in teaching mathematics.
Interested in learning more?
Read about how the Harkness method supports the study of mathematics…
Review problem sets used in mathematics courses…
Read The New York Times article from October 10, 2008 on math study in the United States...
Read a profile of Zuming Feng in The Exeter Bulletin, Fall 2007…
Meet more of Exeter's outstanding faculty…
Read about the Exeter math team's first place finish at ARML…
Check out the Peanut Software website...
Lion's note: this article first appeared on March 20, 2008 and was updated on October 11, 2008.
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