The mathematical thinking class is designed to help students move from algorithmic problems of the sort typically found in school classes, to more sophisticated problem solving. When solving more advanced problems, there is no standard algorithm to follow, and instead you must be willing to get your hands dirty and explore, without any guarantee of success. But with more practice, you will develop intuition that leads you in the right direction increasingly often.
A few of the skills that students should take away from this class are comfort in mathematical exploration, willingness to try examples, and organizing data. At the beginning of the year, we will start with scaffolded problems that require only small leaps in order to solve them, and gradually students will be expected to take larger and larger leaps.
In addition to improving their problem solving skills, students in this class will be exposed to a wide range of mathematical topics, from number theory to combinatorics to game theory to set theory to dynamical systems to topology, and more.
This class is intended to be taken as a yearlong sequence (Fall, Winter, and Spring), and students are recommended to take all three quarters, but it is also possible to take just one or two of the quarters. This class is purely problem-based, without any lectures. Students who take this class and do well will be in a good position to take the transition to proofs class in the following year.
There will be an online version of this class, meeting Tuesdays from 5:00–7:00 PM Pacific time, and an in-person version of the class, meeting Wednesdays from 6:30–8:30 PM Pacific time in Palo Alto; students choose one of these two options. In the fall, this class will run from the week of September 24th through the week of December 3rd, with a break the week of November 26th.
Applications for the fall class are due July 21st. After that, we will continue to accept applications on a rolling basis while space remains. Click here to apply!
Euler Circle 