HSS Outreach Activities: 2000-2001

 

  1. A course in High School Algebra

    2. Over the summer 2000, from July 7th to August 29th, the HSS Outreach Program organized an intensive Algebra course. Major topics covered included: Models, Functions and Permutations; Linear Relationships and Functions; Matrices; Linear Systems; Quadratic Equations and Functions; and Polynomial and Polynomial Functions. The course focused both on fundamental knowledge and on critical thinking questions related to the aforementioned topics. In an effort to connect Math with the surrounding realities, the curriculum attempted to make connections between different mathematical areas, between mathematics and science, and between mathematics and social studies. Students were required to read ahead of time the all sections to be discussed in class as well as attempting to solve some problems related to those sections. Enliven and enriched class discussion reinforced students reading and opened up new avenues of critical thinking. The textbook used was Advanced Algebra by Bellman & al., Prentice Hall Inc, 1998. The instructor was Jean L. Rene.

    Five motivated students from Hyde Park High School enrolled in that class which met 4 hours per week. Although some of them were unavailable at some point in time, however they all completed the program. Judging by their progression in math at their school, the program was successful. Two of them have been able to enroll in a calculus course and have sustained very good grades. The others are doing very well in their respective math classes; be it in Geometry course or pre-calculus class.

    For more info about such activities please contact Jean L. Rene

     

  2. A course in Higher Algebra 2000-2001

Since June 2000, the HSS started to offer a course in Higher Algebra. Lectures take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge MA every other Saturday between 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The goal of the course is to cover the material in Michael Artin's book "Algebra". It is a semi-rigorous course in abstract algebra using the group of matrices as examples. We do prove theorems and expect participants to be willing to learn how to write proofs explicitly. In fact this is one of the focuses of such a program. The pace is slow so that participants can ask many questions and they will have an opportunity to solve a large quantity of various types of problems. Participants will leave this class with a very good understanding of the basic algebraic structures such as groups, morphisms, vector spaces, rings and fields. These structures are used in the mathematics that would be of interest to engineers, computer scientists, physicists, chemists etc… The lecturer is Alfred G. Noël

 

Dates of the remaining lectures

 

3/10/01

Sec 3.3 - 3.6

3/24/01

Sec 4.1-4.3

4/7/01

Problems

4/21/01

Sec 4.4-4.8

5/5/01

Problems

 

 

 

 

 

5/19/01

Sec 5.1 - 5.3

6/2/01

Sec 5.4-5.8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more info about the course please contact Alfred G. Noël

 

 

 

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