THE CHARLOTTE

MATHEMATICS CLUB:

A GREENHOUSE FOR TALENT

After my own very positive experiences with MathCounts in 1986-87, it was a disappointment to realize that I would no longer be able to practice and participate in mathematics competitions with my classmates. Understanding my situation, in 1987 my father, Harold Reiter (University of North Carolina-Charlotte) organized a group that came to be known as the Charlotte Mathematics Club (CMC).

Although the activities have been quite varied, the basic organization has remained unaltered over the past ten years. One Saturday morning each month, students in the eighth through twelfth grades meet to do mathematics together. Local schools provide a meeting place, Reiter or other mathematicians plan the program, and parents and teachers serve as volunteers to keep things organized. Students learn about the club from teachers, other students, or announcements in the local newspaper. Some students have commuted as far as 100 miles to join this mathematical activity.

At a typical meeting, students receive a set of problems to work on individually for a short time after they arrive. These problem sets are most often a series of open-ended problems dealing with material from outside the traditional high school mathematics curriculum, such as combinatorics, probability, or game theory. The first problems are computational and may be solved by nearly all the participants. Subsequent problems usually require proofs that challenge even the brightest students. Later, the students divide into groups to continue working on and discussing the problems. After a break and refreshments, the whole group reconvenes to discuss the problems and share solutions, or to hear a short presentation about some other mathematical topic. On occasion, another university faculty member gives a presentation--anything from a proof that there are five Platonic solids to a mathematical magic show. At other meetings₁ students speak about projects they are working on or summer mathematics programs that they have attended.

Given that the group has grown to as many as fifty students, Saturday mornings have become more of a three-ring circus, with students of various abilities and interests participating in any of several activities: listening to a speaker, working on problems, playing with mathematical puzzles and games (for example, using graph theory to solve the Instant Insanity puzzle, or participating in the Tournament of Towns and the Mandelbrot competitions.

The activities of the club have now expanded beyond the Saturday meetings. Home-schooled students and students from nonparticipating schools have banded together to participate as a group in area mathematics competitions. A number of students have done mathematics fair projects and received help through the club. Also, when another group formed, for fourth- through sixth-graders, members of the older club volunteered to help. The December meeting features visits from CMC alumni who return to talk about their experiences in various summer enrichment programs and in college and graduate school in mathematics. Through the club, students have been able to participate in a number of other mathematical activities around the state. For example, it has served as a sparring partner for both the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and the South Carolina state American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) team in weekend practice sessions.

Many factors may hinder the formation of a mathematical community for high school students. in many cases, the low density of students who are seriously interested in mathematics inhibits the formation of such a community within a single school. Local mathematics leagues enable excellent students from schools around the city to be challenged by one another, but the nature of the competition provides little chance for students from different schools to work together on mathematics. A mathematics club that is open to students from across the entire community allows students ~ a very high level of ability and interest to meet, in a noncompetitive situation, with other students who challenge them.

Although competitions are not a focus of the club's activity, they serve as a actively standard measure of the success that the club has had in identifying and developing the talent located in the region. For more than thirteen years, Duke University has given full-tuition scholarships to students who excel in the North Carolina state mathematics competition. In the years before the formation of the CMC, students from Mecklenburg County (the region served by the club) made up nine of the forty Duke scholars. In the most recent eight years, when the club had been in existence for at least two years, nine of the fifteen Duke scholars have hailed from Mecklenburg County, and eight of those had participated in the CMC.

Another measure of the development of talent is participation in a training program for one of the four international Olympiads-in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and computer science (infornnatics}. Although not limited to mathematics, each of these fields require significant knowledge and experience in mathematics. In the years before the Charlotte Mathematics Club, no resident of Mecklenburg County participated in any of the training programs. (The computer Olympiad began only in 1992.) Since 1991, however, six alumni of the CMC have participated in these training programs--two each in physics and computing and one each in mathematics and chemistry. Furthermore, three CMC students have represented the United States in an academic Olympiad and have garnered a gold, silver, and bronze medal. One factor in this increased participation is familiarity with the process leading to the training program and Olympiad itself. This kind of personal knowledge can typically be found only in very special high schools. However, in a larger community this type of knowledge can be shared among more students and teachers.

The long-term results of this club are only beginning to appear. Of the first participants, anecdotal evidence indicates that a significant number are now pursuing a Ph.D. degree in mathematics or computer science. It is conceivable that the causation works in reverse-that the club has been so successful because of the participation of students who are already so interested in mathematics. In any case, the club has served a key role in the development of that talent and interest.

The structure of this club has also served to identify some groups of students whose mathematical promise might otherwise go unnoticed. Given the present emphasis on competition for mathematically inclined students, the club has offered a unique opportunity for students who are averse to competitions-but not to mathematics. This type of club is also an important resource for home-schooled students, who have been a particularly active component of the CMC. Finally, this type of club has provided mathematical stimulation to students who attend schools where no teacher is able to provide extracurricular mathematical activities.

Given the high workloads imposed on most high school teachers, it is significant that this type of club, run primarily by university faculty and parents, becomes a resource for teachers to offer their students rather than an additional responsibility. Furthermore, through the CMC, students, parents, and teachers have shared ideas and information that has aided teachers in their attempts to stimulate their students, and it has given the students the means by which to be aware of and take advantage of other mathematical opportunities. The CMC will not identify or meet the needs of every student who has an interest or aptitude for mathematics, but for a significant number of Charlotte students, the club has been an academic and social springboard to propel us through college and into graduate school in mathematics.