Sponsors and Partners
Sponsors
PROMYS
Linde Family Foundation
National Security Agency
American Mathematical Society
PROMYS Foundation
Oracle Corporation
Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP
Raytheon Company
The MathWorks Inc.
Mott Philanthropic LLC
Private Donors
PROMYS for Teachers
National Science Foundation
The Noyce Foundation
Math for America
Math for America-Boston
PROMYS Foundation
Intel Corporation
Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust
Private Donors
Boston University generously supports both programs
Partners
The Clay Mathematics Institute
The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) is dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. Students who find their PROMYS experience especially worthwhile may be invited to return for a second summer to participate in advanced seminars and research activities. To ensure that returning students and counselors find their experience intellectually stimulating, PROMYS, in partnership with the Clay Mathematics Institute, offers a variety of advanced seminars and research projects each summer. In 2013, returning students and counselors participated in the following seminars for their further enrichment: Geometry and Symmetry, Wavelet Transformations, and Representations of Finite Groups. Past seminars have also included: Algebra; Values of the Riemann zeta function; Modular Forms; Hyperbolic Geometry; Graphs and Knots; Random Walks on Groups; Dirichlet Series; the Mathematics of Computer Graphics; and the Mathematics of Algorithms.
Since 1999, the CMI/PROMYS partnership has also run research labs. PROMYS participants form teams of four to engage in open-ended exploratory mathematics projects with the guidance of research mathematicians, Mentors, and Seminar Leaders.
Visiting research mathematicians and Mentors have included: Avner Ash, Marjory Baruch, Henry Cohn, Keith Conrad, Ed Early, David Fried, Ira Gessel, Paul Gunnells, Jonathan Hanke, Kiran Kedlaya, Jonathan Lubin, Haynes Miller, Cleve Moler, Robert Pollack, David Rohrlich, Steve Rosenberg, Dev Sinha, and Cumrun Vafa.
Students write up their projects and give a presentation of their research results during the last week of the program to the PROMYS faculty, counselors, and all of the PROMYS participants.
In 2013, the partnership between CMI and PROMYS was expanded by the formation of the CMI-PROMYS International Alliance which funded scholarships to PROMYS for European students in 2013 and will do so again for the summer of 2014.
The Clay Mathematics Institute website
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
The Education Development Center (Waltham, MA) has partnered with PROMYS for well over a decade. In particular, EDC in partnership with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, conducts five full-day workshops during the academic year with a focus on pedagogy and connecting the immersion experience in mathematics back to the classroom. Teachers explore mathematics inspired by the secondary curriculum, and collaborate to plan lessons.
Since PfT’s infancy, Co-Director of PROMYS for Teachers, Al Cuoco (EDC) has shared visions with PROMYS Director, Glenn Stevens (BU) that are now being realized in a profound way. After fifteen dedicated years of commitment and leadership, the EDC/BU partnership has led to the following results:
- PROMYS teachers are Teacher Leaders in their schools,
- PROMYS teachers are having an impact on the students in their classrooms,
- PROMYS teachers have completed successful internships as Professional Development Leaders, as evidenced in the PCMI-led courses and curricula that PROMYS teachers develop and deliver in Park City, Utah (see below),
- PROMYS teachers are participating in NCTM conferences and publishing their research, and finally, and perhaps most exciting of all, is the development of the new Masters degree in Mathematics for Teaching that has at its core, the key ingredients that led to the proven success of the PfT program: the six week immersion experience, an internship in professional development, and a research experience. Now, PROMYS teachers (and others nationwide) will have an even greater opportunity to effect educational reform in their schools; obtain a secure career path; and contribute to the mathematical community, at large.
Math for America-Boston (MfA-Boston)
MƒA Boston was launched in 2010 with a mission to improve student achievement in mathematics and to develop robust numeracy among all students by recruiting, training and retaining talented mathematics teachers. MfA Boston cultivates and respects outstanding teachers with support from a community of mathematicians, educators, administrators, and teachers, all working together to put mathematics and how students learn mathematics at the core of secondary mathematics education in Boston area schools.
MƒA Boston offers the MƒA Fellowship and MƒA Master Teacher Fellowship. MƒA Boston is a collaboration with Boston University, Boston College, Education Development Center and MIT/Wellesley Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP), with support from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program and private foundations.
MfA-Boston Fellowship:
The MƒA Boston Fellowship is a five-year program that rewards highly qualified individuals who wish to become public secondary school mathematics teachers. Fellows are recent graduates or mid-career STEM professionals who make a commitment to teach mathematics in a high need public secondary school in the greater Boston area. MƒA Boston support is designed to help transform Fellows into outstanding mathematics teachers, promoting a culture of exploration in secondary school classrooms.
Year One: Prepare to become a public secondary school math teacher:
Full-tuition scholarship for a master’s degree in mathematics education and initial MA teaching license.
Participation in BU’s PROMYS for Teachers program.
$10,000 in stipends
Membership in a rich mathematical community through workshops, meetings and social events.
Years Two through Five: Teach in a high-need Boston area public secondary school.
At least $40,000 in stipends over four years, in addition to a full-time teacher’s salary.
Mentoring support, professional development opportunities and participation in MƒA Boston corps activities.
MƒA Boston Master Teacher Fellowship:
The MƒA Boston Master Teacher Fellowship provides experienced secondary school mathematics teachers with strong mathematical content knowledge from the greater Boston area with opportunity and support to become instructional leaders in their schools. MƒA Boston Master Teachers continue to teach in a high-need Boston school for 2-5 years (depending on cohort). The 2014 cohort will be supported by Boston College’s NSF Noyce grant.
The 2014 program includes annual stipends of $10,000 as well as professional development and leadership opportunities, including:
Enrollment in graduate courses at Boston College in either mathematics or mathematics education that may lead to advanced degrees.
Professional Development through workshops associated with BU’s PROMYS for Teachers program, MIT’s STEP program or MƒA Boston seminars.
Study groups with other Master Teachers for support creating individual professional development units and building instructional and leadership skills around PD delivery.
Invitation to contribute to university pre-service education or mentoring programs for MƒA Boston Teaching Fellows.
Opportunities to present work at regional or national mathematics/education conferences.
Membership in a vibrant community consisting of teachers, mathematicians, mathematics educators, researchers and graduate and undergraduate students.
Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI)
The Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ offers comprehensive professional development for mathematicians and teachers of mathematics, as well as programs for students aspiring to a career in mathematics. The High School Teacher Program is one component of PCMI. The High School Teacher Program summer session is a three-week experience for secondary mathematics teachers. A related but separate program is a special one-week session for mathematics supervisors or curriculum coordinators. The HSTP is structured around three goals:
- continuing to learn and do mathematics,
- analyzing and refining classroom practice, and
- becoming resources to colleagues and the profession.
The strand that focuses on continuing to learn and do mathematics is led by PROMYS teachers. The summer of 2013 will be the thirteenth consecutive summer that a group of PROMYS teachers have developed a curriculum and facilitated the one-week professional development session in Park City for other in-service teachers.