3 minute read
Math to the Nth Degree
For over a year, teachers across disciplines have been reshaping the curriculum to realize the potential of the Signature Academic Program. For the Math Department, the solution has proven greater than the sum of its parts. The topics students can learn about and the routes they can take are growing exponentially.
Students arrive at George School with a range of math preparation, and an equally wide range of math interests and long-term goals. As Math Department Head Hamilton Davis puts it, “Trying to leverage the flexibility of the seventerm schedule helped us to realize we could tailor an academic experience more closely to the needs of the individual student. For some that means deeper, further math offerings. For others that means being able to tack a bit more towards applied mathematics. For still others that means access and exposure to mathematics they might not have otherwise seen.”
Kevin Moon, the previous Math Department Head, explains a fundamental change in thinking: “We are not locked into ‘years’ any longer. Instead of saying, ‘Precalc junior year, then calc senior year,’ we are able to see the four-year path as a development of a single whole.” Flexibility starts immediately. Where initial placement and future prospects were formerly dictated—and limited—by prior coursework, the new curriculum meets incoming students where they are and takes them where they want to go.
The module-based calendar enables them to start midway through a traditional course if that’s what they need, cover more than a traditional course in a year if that’s what they want, and take topics traditionally taught together (e.g., calculus and statistics) when it’s right for them.
Doubling up (taking more than one traditional course in a year) and test driving (trying a topic before committing to its full length) are also easier. Myriad permutations and combinations create an all-you-can-eat math buffet designed to leave each student sated.
Where flexibility increases, so does equity. Regardless of their pre–George School math prep, all students can pursue the IB diploma if they choose. And speaking of IB, the school now offers all IB math courses (as well as all AP courses), allowing students with different interests to make those programs work for them.
NEW MATH DEPARTMENT HEAD Hamilton Davis and the rest of the Math faculty are now able to tailor their program to the needs of individual students and offer deeper and further math offerings as part of the Signature Academic Program.
“For a school this small,” says Hamilton, “it is very impressive.”
Equally impressive is the growing cadre of super-math-focused students. “We are inspired by our students who have come to George School better prepared and interested in math,” says Kevin. “I’m constantly impressed by our Math Team and the awards our students win during national and international competitions. This year, several students launched a mathematics, science, and arts magazine called MATES, and on top of that I am working with a student who is doing amazing research for her IB work.”
To meet the needs of these math-hungry students and to attract more, the school’s superb faculty provides an array of advanced subjects and opportunities. Recent years have seen the addition of courses from discrete math and number theory to linear algebra and artificial intelligence. With the expansion of the IB’s Extended Essay component to include math, students have researched topics like financial options pricing models, astronomical modeling, and the traveling salesman problem. The newest layer is “a range of rich, engaging, project-oriented data science options,” describes Hamilton. “More than half the department are doing professional development (spearheaded by Julia Nickles ’03) on the incorporation of programming/coding in the statistics and data science options. This is BIG in terms of preparing students for how data analysis and statistics are done in the current-day real world.”
No surprise, then, that new courses lean to math’s applied side. Says Kevin, “Data Analysis is a post-stats class that asks students to develop their own project, find data, research, write, and take a deep dive into some area of the student’s interest (incarceration rates by zip code, big data in climate change…).” Other additions are IB HL Math: Applications and a tax preparation class with a service option. Students can gain a tax preparer’s credential and help underserved community members prepare their taxes.
Flexible and far-reaching, the new math program encourages broader, deeper, and more individualized exploration, enabling each student to get the most from their George School math experience.
