Curriculum

The program consists of twenty Saturday morning classes, each two and a half hours long during the academic year, and additional time is allocated for special projects outside the classroom. Each twenty-week course has space for twenty-five to thirty students in grades 5 and 6 combined, grades 7 and 8 combined and grades 9 and 10 combined. For each section, a team of five expertly gifted educators collaborates to set forth the syllabus, pedagogy, design of challenging problems, activities, and assessment instruments.

Sample topics covered include:

Grades 5 and 6

Problem-solving, number theory, divisibility theorems, number patterns, geometry, probability, astronomy, density, mathematics in nature, forces in action, triangulation with scale drawings, and logic matrix puzzles.

Grades 7 and 8

Problem-solving strategies, number theory, geometry, geoboards, probability and statistics, geometric constructions to find the missing treasure, calculation of the speed of sound, drawing of an ocean-bottom profile, measurement and graphing of various types of balls, and construction of a multi-data graph.

Grades 9 and 10

Euclidean algorithm, number theory, theory of finite differences, taxicab geometry, Stewart's and other special theorems, Hero's formula, 9-point circle, mass-point geometry, permutations/combinations, binomial and multinomial theorems, graph theory basics, and applications such as the Four-Color problem and the Traveling Salesman problem.