9452667 Mendez Metropolitan State College of Denver, in collaboration with the Denver Public Schools, seeks to initiate a four-week summer commuter program in mathematics for 48 disadvantaged and traditionally underrepresented (women and minority) students entering 7th and 8th grades, who have exceptional interest and high potential in science, mathematics and/or engineering. Students will learn new mathematics with an emphasis on scientific applications, working together in small problem solving groups. They will study probability and statistics through hands-on experiments involving data collection and analysis and descriptive graphing techniques, curve fitting, and function approximation models in multiple interdisciplinary contexts. They will explore chaotic phenomena and investigate functions, iterations, fixed points, orbits, and their limits, fractals, and game theory. They will focus on applications in various fields. Students will participate in extensive graphing calculator and computer activities. Additional components of the program include career awareness, ethics and academic year follow-up activities. ***
