Our classes
Our classes are modular in nature. The study materials, from 1st to 12th grade, are organized in a system that prepares children for success in college and beyond. On the one hand, we build the knowledge of modern day mathematics layer by layer. On the other hand, it is the nature of our program that students come and go. This fact of life requires a modular approach to teaching. Our courses and quite often topics covered in the courses are independent of one another in the short run. In the long run however, they form the layered system mentioned above. There is one exception to this rule: the course Breaking Numbers into Parts forms a single 2-year-long course for 1st and 2nd grade. This course cannot be broken into smaller independent modules.
BNP
BNP is a two-year-long enrichment course for children in grades one through two.
The course, based on the book Breaking Numbers into Parts, is designed for students in the first and second grade. The 1st edition of the book was featured in Washington Post. The second edition of the book we use in this course has two parts, both available on Amazon. Part 1 Part 2
To succeed in the course, the child must be able to confidently read on their own and to add and subtract one-digit numbers.
Year 1: Grade 1
Year 2: Grade 2
CURRICULUM
The course teaches 1st grade students to break (positive integral) numbers into parts in all the possible ways. The book the course is based on was tried and tested at UCLA Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle (ORMC), a free Sunday math school for mathematically inclined children run by UCLA Department of Mathematics. The book was used as a basis for a two-year long enhancement math course at a variety of other locations, from Math Circles and after-school programs to a full-fledged elementary school. The second edition of the book is a feedback-based improvement of the first edition. It has two extra chapters, more than sixty extra problems, solutions to harder problems, ten quizzes, and more.
PERKS
The course gives students a novel approach to elementary arithmetic through the theory of partitions. We use the approach to prove commutativity of addition of positive integers in an age-appropriate fashion. Students also explore the concepts of digits and numbers, odd and even numbers, operations (functions), and inverse operations.
LESSON EXAMPLES
Lesson 2 Lesson 10
Read an introduction to the 2nd edition of BNP here.
Beginners 1
The course is based on the book Math Adventures with ORMC, Level 1, From Optical Illusions to Fighting Dragons, Workbook, by Dr. Gleizer and Dr. Radko. Please click on this link to see the book on Amazon.
Beginners 1 is a two-year-long enrichment course for children in grades three through four. To succeed in the course, a child needs to have mastered multiplication and division of three-digit numbers. This level of mathematical prowess is usually achieved in the fourth grade of a standard US school. If your child is ahead of their grade level, they can start this course as early as in the third grade.
Year 1: Grade 3-4
Year 2: Grade 4-5
CURRICULUM
The course is designed for mathematically inclined children 8 to 10 years of age. There are 33 lessons in the book. Each lesson takes two to three 50-minute-long sessions to cover. Each lesson is followed by homework. The lessons cover the topics ranging from advanced problem solving to graph theory to Roman and binary numbers to the one-sided surface known as the Mobius strip to vectors in the plane. We study the latter in the How to Kill a Dragon game.
PERKS
We teach elementary school students the topics typically covered in college such as
graph theory, game theory, topology, etc. Your child will not learn this material at school.
The speed at which the material is presented in the US colleges makes it very hard for a
college student to understand if they were not already familiar with the material to some degree. In one sentence, we build a bridge between school and college!
LESSON EXAMPLES
Lesson 2 Lesson 20
CURRICULUM
The course is designed for mathematically inclined children 10 to 12 years of age. There are 32 lessons in the book. Each lesson takes two to three 50-minute-long sessions to cover. Each lesson is followed by homework. The lessons cover the topics ranging from ciphers to functions to solids and projections to introduction to logic and microchip design, and more.
PERKS
We teach elementary school students the topics typically covered in college. At the Beginners 2 level, these are cryptography, introduction to mathematical logic and microchip design, geodesic lines on various objects, etc.
LESSON EXAMPLES
Lesson 2 Lesson 19
CURRICULUM
The classes are suitable for mathematically inclined children 11 to 13 years of age. The topics covered include: the Tower of Hanoi and the Sierpinksi Triangle, Egyptian multiplication and binary numbers, introduction to geometry, compass and ruler constructions, clock-face arithmetic, coordinates in the plane and on a sphere, functions and graphs, and geometry on the cylinder.
LESSON EXAMPLES
Hanoi Tower Sierpinksi Triangle
CURRICULUM
The classes are suitable for mathematically inclined children 13 to 14 years of age.
LESSON EXAMPLES
Number Line
Advanced 1
Grade 10-11
CURRICULUM
The classes are suitable for mathematically inclined children 14 to 15 years of age. The topics covered include Combinatorics & Graph Theory, Group theory and cryptography, Metrics and Distances, Information Theory, Cartography and Navigation among may other.
Advanced 2
Grade 11-12
CURRICULUM
The classes are suitable for mathematically inclined children 16 to 17 years of age. The topics covered include Modular Arithmetic, Finite fields, Vectors, Probability, Number Theory, Dynamical Systems among many other.
Chess Program
Temporarily not Available.
Level 1, Beginners
Level 2, Intermediate.
CURRICULUM
The first
half of the class will cover basics, including how the pieces move,
opening play, and elementary tactics. The second half will go more in
depth on specific tactical and positional motifs, including back-rank
checkmate, bishop vs. knight, and more.
Lessons will include examples of positional ideas, but also problems for students to practice with. There will be weekly homework sheets that delve deeper into the motifs and ideas discussed in the prior lessons.
PERKS
We practice the hands-on approach to instruction. Our lessons are
interactive and involve solving numerous chess problems. This approach
makes it natural for students to engage with the material. We believe in mentorship and community and hope to foster a sense of
community and togetherness even with lessons taught over Zoom.