Great Problems of Mathematics: A Summer Workshop for High School Students
Reinhard Laubenbacher, Michael Siddoway · College Mathematics Journal · 1994
Stimulating problems are at the heart of many great advances in mathematics. In fact, whole subjects owe their existence to a single problem that resisted solution. Nevertheless, throughout the curriculum we tend to present only polished theories and finished techniques, devoid of both the motivating problems and the long road to their solution. Why deprive our students of examples of the process by which mathematics is created? Why shield them from the central problems that have fired its development? With these questions in mind, we designed a 3-week summer workshop for high school students, funded by the National Science Foundation under its Young Scholars program and held at Colorado College in 1992 and 1993. The 22 students who participated each summer were from across the country, were primarily beginning seniors, and had completed at least 2 years of algebra and 1 year of geometry. For an introduction to sophisticated mathematics that minimizes the prerequisites, we are convinced that our approach is effective, gets students excited,