San Diego Math Circle www.sdmathcircle.org History, Structure, and Curriculum David Patrick Art of Problem Solving [email protected] August 4, 2011 MAA MathFest, Lexington, KY DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 1/14 Why We’re Here Students enjoying the Math Circle DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 2/14 History San Diego Math Circle Founded in 2003-04 by Richard Rusczyk (AoPS) with about 20 local students. Initially: organizedbyAoPSandhostedatthe University of California, San Diego. Through2006,anSDMCwebsitewashosted as part of Art of Problem Solving. It has since split off onto its own website: www.sdmathcircle.org DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 3/14 Timeline 2003-05 Run in-house by AoPS. UCSD provides space and logistic support. Spring 2005 Too much work for too few students. Asked parents to help recruit more students and to help with administrative tasks. 2005-06 SDMC run by AoPS with lots of parents help. Fall 2006 Many aspects taken over by parents. December 2006 Completely taken over by parents. 200+ students! Moral of the story Make the parents the primary stakeholders! DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 4/14 Financing/Logistics FREE to all students in grades 5-12. $100 donation requested by default for the school year. Parents also requested to volunteer for a task. No students are rejected! UCSD and AoPS provide in-kind donations. Many corporations provided matching contributions or volunteerism grants. Organizers and instructors are paid a modest honorarium. Out-of-town trips (e.g. ARML) are budgeted separately. Funds managed by Art of Problem Solving Foundation (501(c)3 tax-exempt umbrella) www.artofproblemsolving.org DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 5/14 Fun! DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 6/14 Organization Students split into 3 main groups: Fermat — Grades 5-7 Euler — Grades 7-9 Gauss — Grades 9-12 SDMC meets most Saturday mornings September-March. Sessions consist of two 75-minute classes (with a 15-minute break between). Session types: 1 Single-session topics 2 Year-long “course” 3 Contests and contest prep DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 7/14 Single-session Topics Most typical “math circle” session. Self-contained class with no specific prerequisites. Some topics from Winter/Spring 2011: Modular Arithmetic Geometric Arithmetic Fractals The Rationality of Irrationals Induction Some Sums Homothety and Inversion Recurrence Relations Generating Functions Finite Differences Instructors are from: Art of Problem Solving UC San Diego (both faculty and grad students) local middle/high school teachers employees at local high-tech companies Math Circle alumni DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 8/14 Year-long Course For the Euler (grade 7-9) group, one meeting permonthisdedicatedtoayear-longcourse. Topic for 2010-11: Counting & Probability Alternate years’ topic: Number Theory Two primary instructors manage this course for the year. Classes are sequential. Uses AoPS textbooks. DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 9/14 Contests Some classes are contest-prep, targeted at major contests. Fermat (5-7): AMC 8 (one day only) Euler (7-9): MATHCOUNTS (January) Gauss (9-12): ARML Power Contest, AIME, ARML Team SDMC is a official site for the AMC 10/12 contests. Home-grown contests (written by AoPS staff): San Diego Math League (twice per year) multiple-choice & short answer San Diego Math Olympiad (March)(invitation-only) proof-style DavidPatrick (AoPS) SanDiegoMathCircle MathFest2011 10/14