MATHEMATICS EDUCATION PROGRAM

March 28, 2024
THE FIELDS INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

MATH CIRCLES (2015 - 2016)

Saturdays, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.


Held at the Fields Institute, 222 College Street, Toronto

Contact: inquiries(PUT_AT_SIGN_HERE)fields.utoronto.ca

All high school students are welcome.

Organizer: Sarah Sun
Previous Organizers: Larry Rice, Radford de Peiza, Daniel Deaconu, Chris Wu

Register Here (new link will be up soon) Angoss Press Release Meetings
Volunteer Application (new link will be up soon) Map to Fields Contact us

NEWS 2016: New Math Circles Webpage, click here.

NEWS 2015: Math Circles Instructors wanted! (Apply here - new link will be up soon)

Math Circles at the Fields Institute is looking for new volunteers to teach bright high school students interesting topics in mathematics. The goal of Math Circles is to introduce different topics in mathematics not necessarily taught in school, while keeping things fun! In particular, we are looking for instructors to do one of the following topics:

Introduction to Real Analysis
Introduction to Graph Theory
Introduction to Topology
Introduction to Groups and Rings
The Game of Go
Game Theory
Optimization

Other topics are welcome!
Lectures are held at the Fields Institute on Saturday afternoons from 1pm - 3pm.

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OVERVIEW
Math Circles have been active in Toronto for several years. While some of the students who attend simply like to work on challenging problems, many others use the weekly circles meetings to help them prepare for competitive mathematics contests, either individually or as members of a team. Some of the past participants in this program have gone on to represent Canada at the International Mathematical Olympiad, the most elite and prestigious of these competitions. Fields is committed to supporting students to take part in competitions outside of Toronto.

MEETINGS
The Fields Mathematics Circles sessions are open to high school students (grade 9& 12) from throughout the Toronto area. Math Circles is held at the Fields Institute on Saturday afternoons. There are about 50 students participating on a weekly basis. There will be 10 to 12 sessions in the fall term (late September to early December) and another 10-12 in the winter spring term, ending by late May.

HISTORY
The Math Circles concept was developed in Moscow in the 1950's as a way to maintain the interest of bright students in mathematics. Challenging material from outside the regular curriculum, as well as preparation for problem solving competitions were seen as the key to maintaining this interest. A critical component to the success of this concept was the active involvement of some of the major figures of the Moscow mathematical community. And, indeed, the Math Circles proved to be highly successful with similar groups established throughout the Soviet Union and beyond. The migration of former Soviet scientists to the West at the end of the twentieth century carried the concept to North America.


NEWS:

  1. Please note that there will be NO Match Circles on Saturday, May 30, 2015! -- posted May 25, 2015.

Announcement from the organizer, Sarah Sun. -- posted October 16, 2014

Hello Advanced Math Circles,

Sacha Mangerel will be teaching a series in Real Analysis over the next three weeks for the Advanced Group. Since this is a series, please try to make sure you do not skip any of these lectures, or the next one will be harder! The topics covered will include:

- Construction of real numbers
- Introduction to Cardinal arithmetic
- Sequences and continuous functions
- Derivatives and the Mean Value Theorem
- Theory of Riemann integration an Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

Each week, we will have the lecture posted online, and at the end of each lecture there will be problem sets. You'll want to review the lecture notes from the previous week going into the lecture.

See you soon!
Sarah

LECTURE notes:

October 18, 2014 lecture notes from Sacha Mangerel : Hanout 1; TopMetWk1 --- (Posted October 22, 2014)

You can also download Sacha's notes from here: https://sites.google.com/site/amangerel/recreational-math/math-circles --- NEW (Posted October 27, 2014)

New. Please be advised that we will have a new registration page up soon. In mean time, you can register when you arrive. Check this webpage for more updates.

 

WINTER/SPRING SCHEDULE FOR 2015-2016

January 16, 2016
January 23, 2016
January 30, 2016

February 6, 2016
February 13, 2016
February 20, 2016
February 27, 2016

 

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