We propose to continue two successful local outreach activities at the high school level, improving and diversifying our collection of activities and materials. The Math Explorer's Club (MEC), meets once a week at Ithaca High School in the 2:45-3:30 time slot set aside for after school clubs. Activities are organized into six to eight week modules, each of which is devoted to a specific topic and led by a Cornell graduate student. The aim of MEC is to show high school students that there is more to mathematics than the centuries old progression from algebra to calculus, and to introduce them a wide spectrum of mathematical ideas, through games, puzzles, model building, and other explorations. The Senior Seminar is a class on advanced mathematics designed for students who have taken most of the available math classes. It meets for one period during school hours three days week at the high school and introduces students to topics such as cryptography, number theory, graph theory, game theory, combinatorics, probability, and topology that they would typically not see until their junior or senior years in college.
The intellectual merit of this proposal lies in the development of high quality materials that introduce advanced mathematical concepts to high schools in an engaging and entertaining manner. The broader impact of this proposal is to export these successful activities to a number of other communities across the country. To facilitate the development of similar activities in other locations, the faculty coordinator and some of the graduate student members will make presentations each year at the Joint Membership meetings of the MAA and AMS, and work with individuals from other universities that want to use our materials. We will create a web-based archive of activities for the MEC and of lecture notes for the Senior Seminar that can be used by students and teachers throughout the country. The availability of tested materials will make it much easier to start similar activities in other locations. The Math Explorer's Club and the Senior Seminar aim to interest more high school students in majoring in math in college, and to increase the number of young women and men who choose mathematics as a career, by increasing the flow into the pipeline.
