The Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, offers comprehensive professional development for mathematicians and teachers of mathematics, as well as programs for students aspiring to a career in mathematics. The Secondary School Teachers Program is one component of PCMI. The Secondary School Teachers Program summer session is a three-week experience for secondary mathematics teachers. A related but separate program is a special one-week session for mathematics supervisors or curriculum coordinators.

The SSTP is structured around three goals:

All teachers should be involved in
• continuing to learn and do mathematics
• analyzing and refining classroom practice
• becoming resources to colleagues and the profession

Each of these goals is reflected in the three strands that comprise the summer courses and activities.

1. Developing Mathematics: Probability Through Algebra (2 hours per day, 5 days per week)

Focused on learning mathematics by working problems together, this course explores the fundamental mathematics on a topic that has its roots in secondary level, and is related to the mathematical theme of the Institute. Careful work on this topic allows teachers (and students) to understand exactly how elementary and more advanced procedures in the specific content area are derived and generalize. The course is structured so that each participant can work at his/her own level. Those who are more mathematically advanced may be asked to help those with less preparation. The course is conducted by teacher leaders from the PROMYS program at Boston University. The focus of this strand is entirely on mathematics, although opportunity is provided within the course for reflection on the approach used by the instructors and to consider the implications of such an approach for teaching in secondary classrooms. The topic for the summer is described below:

You're at deuce in a tennis game and are 60\% likely to win each point.   How likely are you to win the game? What is the probability that you roll a sum of 13 when 5 dice are thrown?  What is the most likely sum when 5 dice are thrown?  Take an expression like $x^6+x^5+x^4+x^3+x^2+x$ and raise it to the fifth power.

 

What do you get?   If you raise it to higher and higher powers, what is the distribution of the coefficients ``in the long run?'' How does the ``random'' button on your calculator work?   What's the probability that two positive integers, chosen at random, have no common factor?   And most importantly, what do all these questions have to do with each other?

In this three-week course, we'll investigate questions like these (and more).  No background in probability or polynomial algebra is assumed, but by the end of three weeks, we promise beautiful mathematical ideas that will make your head spin.

2. Reflecting on practice: Connections to Research (1 hour per day, 5 days per week, plus opportunities for informal sessions in late afternoon and evenings)

After considering research related to teaching and learning mathematics, participants will reflect on the implications of this research for what takes place in classrooms. The discussion will be grounded in the development of lessons, student work, and classroom practice. Participants will work collaboratively to develop teaching and learning resources in order to implement ideas from their discussion.  The focus will be on teaching strategies that use problem-solving and open-ended approaches.

3. Working Groups (2 hours, 4 days a week)

As part of their summer activities, each participant selected for the 2007 Secondary School Teacher Summer Program will be assigned to a small subject-specific working group, which will prepare an activity or resource for the profession (with the associated mathematics) for piloting during the following year. The working groups are:

• Reasoning from Data and Chance
• Exploring Discrete Mathematics
• Investigating Geometry
• Learning from Teaching Cases
• Implementing Lesson Study
• Visualizing Functions
• Applied Probability

Note that these topics may change before the Summer Session. All participants will be notified of any changes.

The Working Groups will collaborate with others in their group to produce some product that can be shared with others at PCMI, and across the larger mathematical education community. Each working group is composed of a small group of teacher participants and a resource person. The group works together to research existing classroom materials and techniques, technologies, and other materials related to the topic, for dissemination and eventual publication by PCMI. The focus of the work should be on:

• creating and elaborating meaningful tasks
• designing activities to extend content knowledge
• illustrating the use of technology as a way to enhance learning and teaching

Applicants should rank their first, second, and third choice of Working Group on the application form. After applicants are accepted and named to a Working Group, some preparation in the form of reading or materials review may be suggested by working group leaders.

Click here for a more in-depth description of each working group.

SSTP Professional Development and Outreach Groups

Teachers are strongly encouraged to take advantage of additional opportunities through involvement in PCMI’s Professional Development and Outreach groups. These groups, based at cooperating university sites around the country, meet regularly throughout the school year and are usually composed of (although not limited to) teachers living in the same geographic region of the country. Other PDO groups may be formed from common professional interests, rather than geographic proximity, and would utilize technology for virtual meetings.

Teachers in the PDO groups meet regularly to

• deepen their understanding of mathematics,
• develop their skills in and understandings of effective teaching of mathematics,
• prepare professional development workshops for Secondary school teachers and conference presentations.

The classic PDO group is facilitated by a cooperating university or college faculty person.

Professional Development and Outreach groups currently active:
(PDO facilitator(s) in italics):

Boston University, Boston, MA (PROMYS for TEACHERS); Glenn Stevens, ghs@math.bu.edu

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA; Darryl Yong, dyong@hmc.edu

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM; Susana Salamanca-Riba, ssalaman@nmsu.edu

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (Ross Summer Mathematics Program for Teachers); Daniel Shapiro, shapiro@math.ohio-state.edu

San Jose State University, San Jose, CA; Joanne Becker, becker@math.sjsu.edu

St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ (Northern NJ Professional Development and Outreach Group); Brian Hopkins, bhopkins@spc.edu

Texas State University, San Marcos, TX (McAllen ISD); Max Warshauer, max@txstate.edu

University of Michigan at Dearborn, Dearborn, MI; Roger Verhey, rverhey@umd.umich.edu

University of Texas Pan American, Edinburgh, TX (McAllen ISD); Roger Knobel, knobel@utpa.edu

University of Washington, Seattle, WA (Northwest Mathematics Interaction); James King, king@math.washington.edu

Alumni groups:

Brigham Young University, UT; David Wright, wright@math.byu.edu.

Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA; (facilitator position open, contact giesbrec@ias.edu)

Duke University, Durham, NC; Jack Bookman, bookman@math.duke.edu

Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID; Robert Fisher, fishrobe@isu.edu

Purdue University; (facilitator position open, contact giesbrec@ias.edu)

Rice University, Houston, TX; John Polking, polking@rice.edu

Rider University, Lawrenceville/Trenton, NJ; Charles Schwartz, schwartz@rider.edu; Ciprian Borcea, borcea@rider.edu

Rhode Island College, Providence, RI; (facilitator position open, contact giesbrec@ias.edu)

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; David Minda, david.minda@math.uc.edu; Charles Groetsch, groetsch@uc.edu

University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL; Naomi Fisher, ndfisher@uic.edu

University of Louisville, Louisville, KY; Steven Seif, swseif01@louisville.edu; Prasanna Sahoo, pksaho01@louisville.edu; Robert Ronau, bob@louisville.edu

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; James Carlson, carlson@math.utah.edu

University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Gary Hamrick, hamrick@math.utexas.edu

PCMI is always interested in forming new Professional Development and Outreach groups and invites teachers or university faculty to consider forming such a group for future involvement in PCMI. For information on how to apply, such groups should contact Catherine Giesbrecht, PCMI Administrator, at 801-581-7467, or by email: giesbrec@ias.edu

The PCMI Secondary School Teacher Program is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0314808. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Affiliated Programs

Three PDO groups host their own summer institutes for teachers with the PCMI Summer Institute in Park City. Teacher participants from these regions are encouraged to complete the local summer program before applying to the Park City summer program. These groups are:

PROMYS for TEACHERS (at Boston University). This program is in session concurrently with the PCMI Summer Session.
Ross Summer Mathematics Program for Teachers (at the Ohio State University). This program is in session concurrently with the PCMI Summer Session.
Northwest Mathematics Interaction (at the University of Washington). This program is in session in August and throughout the school year.