August 24, 1996 Math Camp From the Space Needle and monorail to the surrounding mountain landscape, Seattle offers a variety of attractions to any visitor of the city. For a group of high school students, however, the real attraction this summer was a chance to listen to, meet, and work with a number of prominent mathematicians. For four weeks, 98 students housed at the University of Washington mixed mathematics with field trips, tennis, swimming, volleyball, and a host of other activities. It was a unique summer camp that kept them busy listening to lectures, pondering daily problem sheets, viewing math videos, trying things out on computers, and searching for proofs in effect, cultivating the art of doing mathematics. The enthusiasm, spirit, and sense of fun were readily apparent when I visited the camp midway through its program. Equally evident was the camaraderie that had developed among the students, representing schools and communities throughout the United States and Canada, with a smattering from countries such as Singapore, Germany, and Turkey. "Our backgrounds and ages don't matter," remarked Stephen Liang II, who attends the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Arlington, Va. "We're mathematicians. We're all here for the same purpose." | |
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