Dispatches from the Circles

Local updates from across the country

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Connecticut

Hema Gopalakrishnan (Fairfield County MTC) presented a math circle activity at the Northeastern Section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America on June 1-2. Everyone was very engaged in an activity focused on finding winning strategies for games.

– Contributed by Hema Gopalakrishnan

Illinois

After a year of record attendance, the Chicago MTC is expanding! Along with new partners at DePaul University and Chicago Public Schools, we are opening a second location in September 2018. To celebrate this growth, we are also hosting our first summer workshop: a Math Summer Jamboree on August 14.

– Contributed by Peter Tingley

New Mexico

MathAmigos, a Santa Fe collaborative working group related to the Santa Fe MTC and the Math Circles Collaborative of New Mexico, received a two-year, $82,000 grant to lead mathematics professional development workshops in the Santa Fe Public Schools.

In the spring, the Math Circles Collaborative of New Mexico ran two Saturday Mathematics workshops for teachers of grades 4-6. Session leaders included Shannon Rogers of Art of Problem Solving and the San Diego MTC. In early May, we recruited many of these same teachers and other teachers from the Santa Fe district to run a family math night at a local elementary school. About 250 parents and their children attended and participated in Julia Robinson Math Festival-style activities, including Exploding Dots.

In June, the Math Circles Collaborative of New Mexico organized three math circle events in Española. Altogether, 142 teachers in the Española School District participated in the math circle activities led by James Taylor of the Santa Fe MTC. The math circle activities received news coverage in the Rio Grande Sun: https://tinyurl.com/mathamigos.

This fall we are planning a large kick-off session, with visits and participation from two state representatives, a city councillor, the mayor, and a reporter from the Rio Grande Sun.

– Contributed by James Taylor

Utah

The MAA Math Horizons Journal will be publishing an article this fall based on a Utah MTC activity regarding the geometry of salt mountains.

– Contributed by Troy Jones

Wisconsin

The Coulee Region Math Teachers’ Circle (CRMC) received $2000 from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Small Foundation Grant Program. We were also featured in a story in the university campus news: https://news.uwlax.edu/math-meetup/.

– Contributed by Nathan Warnberg

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2018 MTCircular.