Hi team liquid

This year I'm helping run my high school math club. We've held the first meeting already and it went relatively well. We had a good amount of people attend and a lot of people signed up at our schools club fair. I've found some pretty interesting stuff for the club but I was wondering if you guys had any problems or topics you found interesting.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

tok

United States691 Posts

September 20 2011 01:02 GMT

Yes, you can start by teaching my quantum calculus .

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Assault_1

Canada1950 Posts

September 20 2011 01:19 GMT

100 locker problem

Torte de Lini

Germany38463 Posts

September 20 2011 01:21 GMT

What exactly goes on in a Math club?

Jaso

United States2147 Posts

September 20 2011 01:22 GMT

hey :o I'm actually in the process of starting up a math club at my high school o_O

I wouldn't really know what to offer since I haven't actually started it yet; but you might want to consider introducing the AMC contests to your club if it's not already offered at your school.

XXGeneration

United States625 Posts

September 20 2011 01:48 GMT

On September 20 2011 10:22 Jaso wrote:
hey :o I'm actually in the process of starting up a math club at my high school o_O

I wouldn't really know what to offer since I haven't actually started it yet; but you might want to consider introducing the AMC contests to your club if it's not already offered at your school.

I recommend the AMC 8 or 10 depending on the skill level of the participants; you can also look for interesting problems. Logic problems are always fun :3

MajuGarzett

Canada635 Posts

September 20 2011 01:52 GMT

Thanks for the responses. The AMC seems like a really good idea. Don't really know the level of the participants yet though so I guess I'll have to gauge that at the next meeting.

Jaso

United States2147 Posts

September 20 2011 01:54 GMT

If you're in high school, you probably can't participate in the AMC 8, but rather 10 and 12.

Surrealz

United States449 Posts

September 20 2011 02:04 GMT

prove why sqrt of 2 is irrational, always a good one. hint: use argument ad absurdum sqrt(2) = m/n

mptj

United States485 Posts

September 20 2011 02:16 GMT

#10

I'm on the varsity math team at my school ^_^
One thing I must suggest is really try to push the logic behind things to kids, like if infinity times infinity is still infinity, push the logic behind that. Don't just have the kids memorizing formulas, because once you understand the key concepts behind ideas breaking down larger problems becomes much easier even when you dont need the exact formula.

MajuGarzett

Canada635 Posts

September 20 2011 03:12 GMT

#11

I think my school has the 10 and 12 AMC. The root 2 stuff is really interesting again and I think it really fits in with teaching logic as suggested. Thanks for all the help.

Plexa

Aotearoa39261 Posts

September 20 2011 03:31 GMT

#12

On September 20 2011 11:16 mptj wrote:
I'm on the varsity math team at my school ^_^
One thing I must suggest is really try to push the logic behind things to kids, like if infinity times infinity is still infinity, push the logic behind that.

Dno if teaching highschool kids stuff about the extended reals is a good idea

Juxx

325 Posts

September 20 2011 03:43 GMT

#13

see if there are any competitions in your state that you can compete in, as those are usually really fun. At our school our big thing that we did was pie day, march 13, where we had a bunch of activities and stuff.

MajuGarzett

Canada635 Posts

September 20 2011 03:56 GMT

#14

On September 20 2011 12:43 Juxx wrote:
see if there are any competitions in your state that you can compete in, as those are usually really fun. At our school our big thing that we did was pie day, march 13, where we had a bunch of activities and stuff.

Yeah, I remember having pi day last year. All we did was see who could recite the most digits though and I think they won a pie. My school already attends a lot of math contest because we have a really good teacher sponsor so I guess I got really lucky that way. I'm mainly just looking for interesting problems at what not because I don't want to bore everyone by going through old contests every week. The logic stuff sounds good though, and I think most of the people there should get stuff about infinity.

]343[

United States10328 Posts

September 20 2011 03:56 GMT

#15

if you want to do contests, ... damn there's a lot of them.

- AMC (American Math Contest) series (AMC10/12, AIME, USAMO.) http://unl.edu/amc
- USAMTS (USA Mathematical Talent Search) (for proof-writing, though round 1 is due soon...)
- MAθ? (Mu Alpha Theta)
- Mandelbrot
- Math League contests (these are much easier than the rest)
- ARML (American Regions Math League)
- Purple Comet Math Meet
- National Assessment & Testing (more of a speed thing though... blegh)

also check out http://www.artofproblemsolving.com(!!) Tons of good problems in the contests section and in the forums, a generally nice (other than the rampant middle-schoolers who think they either know everything or should post about everything... I guess I was once one of the latter) community.

And of course, there's local contests: Harvard-MIT, Princeton, Duke, Stanford, Rice, Caltech-Harvey Mudd are the bigger ones, while there are also plenty of smaller-scale contests as well.

PM me if you have any more questions!

... Oh, if your math club isn't geared toward contests, hmm... try searching stuff like "recreational mathematics."

Espelz

Germany819 Posts

September 20 2011 03:58 GMT

#16

On September 20 2011 12:31 Plexa wrote:

Show nested quote +

Dno if teaching highschool kids stuff about the extended reals is a good idea

What about some nice mindboggeling Hilberts Grand Hotel ? I must admit I don´t even know how old you are if you´re in Highschool in the US, so I´d refrain from making suggestions until I know what you bring to the table in the sense of "stuff you learned beforehand".

One thing that is pretty much always possible (and doesn´t require any real knowledge beforehand) would probably be graph theory (and its a fun topic too ! ), if you hadn´t done that already.

MajuGarzett

Canada635 Posts

September 20 2011 04:10 GMT

#17

On September 20 2011 12:56 ]343[ wrote:
if you want to do contests, ... damn there's a lot of them.

- AMC (American Math Contest) series (AMC10/12, AIME, USAMO.) http://unl.edu/amc
- USAMTS (USA Mathematical Talent Search) (for proof-writing, though round 1 is due soon...)
- MAθ? (Mu Alpha Theta)
- Mandelbrot
- Math League contests (these are much easier than the rest)
- ARML (American Regions Math League)
- Purple Comet Math Meet
- National Assessment & Testing (more of a speed thing though... blegh)

also check out http://www.artofproblemsolving.com(!!) Tons of good problems in the contests section and in the forums, a generally nice (other than the rampant middle-schoolers who think they either know everything or should post about everything... I guess I was once one of the latter) community.

And of course, there's local contests: Harvard-MIT, Princeton, Duke, Stanford, Rice, Caltech-Harvey Mudd are the bigger ones, while there are also plenty of smaller-scale contests as well.

PM me if you have any more questions!

... Oh, if your math club isn't geared toward contests, hmm... try searching stuff like "recreational mathematics."

Thanks for the advice! I wouldn't say the club isn't geared towards contests. I think the other people running it and I still want to compete in them. I just thought more people would come to the meetings if they were more surprising or interesting problems. I guess we should have meetings focusing on contests though if we want to do well in them.

n.DieJokes

United States3443 Posts

September 20 2011 04:12 GMT

#18

Aim high, start doing putnam problems. Realistically you could take one of the harder problems from the AMC and explain the foundations you needed to have to get the solution. The more you do, the larger your base is and people can come and go as they please while still getting something out of it.