High School Students

Professor Sormani has worked with high school students in the following ways:

Lehman College Math Circle

In 2002-2004, I co-organized a math circle at Lehman College for high school students with Prof Halabi.   Each semester we had five meetings with talks by professors on various topics and also involved some undergraduate math majors.     Most of the students went to nearby DeWitt Clinton High School.  There were 5-10 members at any given time.  One of our members mentioned the math circle at her MIT college interview and said she had enjoyed a talk on spherical coordinates.  She was given a chalk and asked to explain it, so she presented spherical coordinates on the black board right then and there.   She was admitted to MIT and later told me it was not too hard!

College Now Precalculus

In 2006 I designed a college credit precalculus course for high school students that included rigorous proofs.   By offering college credit, we brought in 20 students and this course was taught for about a decade following my design.   See the Lehman College College Now Program.

More Advanced College Courses

I have often taught high school students in my college courses at Lehman along with Lehman College students.  It is highly recommended to start with the College Now Precalculus for the first semester in Junior Year of High School, then move on to Calculus and eventually Linear Algebra.

Graphics Project:

The goal of this project was for the high school student to learn a little about advanced mathematics while contributing in a serous way to published mathematical research by making professional graphics.   I drew pictures with pencil and paper and vaguely explained the mathematics, and the student would make professional graphics using skills learned elsewhere.   The figures were then included in published mathematics articles.     Note that I do not usually work with such young students but Penelope Chang of Hunter College High School was well trained in graphic arts and suggested the project.  Here is a document with samples of the completed work including links to publications.  It went very well, so we worked together for four years (2013-2017).   

Youtube Channel

I have a youtube channel with videos from various courses that should be accessible to anyone who has taken calculus and learned a little about proving.   It's mostly designed for college math majors but some advanced high school students watch them as well.   My most popular videos are quite advanced.

Future

High school students interested in working with Professor Sormani are encouraged to engage in Lehman College College Now courses first.   Contact me (sormanic at gmail) about which course to take.  Some may be completed online with special permission.