Help advertising a math class?

You could go corny with something like “Explore the infinite possibilities of math”... but I think you’ll hook more by concentrating on the differences your class offers from traditional classes. It sounds like this might be the kid’s first exposure to a lot of these ideas and that’s exactly what you want?

So maybe play it up to a specific group you’re targeting. Something like “Enjoy math but wish you could step past the formulas? Theoretical Mathematics 309 with Professor Finkelitis explores the truths behind the math you’re used to learning and encourages students to theorize and discuss areas that aren’t typically covered in school. No repeated formula memorization, no endless arithmetic, just solid discovery regarding the fundamentals of the basic language of our universe.”

That last part might be laying it on a little thick, and you’d have to edit the rest for truth, but if I was thinking about taking pre-cal and saw Professor Finkelitis’s Theoretical Mathematics… I think I’d rather take that.

You may want to throw something in there about preparing students for more advanced classes as well, kids in summer school are usually trying to get ahead, right? And the parents who are paying want to make sure they’re learning something that will be used later.

Good luck with the class, can we get a syllabus? It’s been a looooong time.

Easy. Find out what’s popular right now that approximates something like Kung Fu
and call it Math for the
Kung Fu Master or Kung Fu Math or Math Fu. (Or whatever is like The Matrix that’s popular.) etc.

Funkdaddy’s blurb would get me hooked!

Check into the gifted ed parent groups in our area, also the Math Counts lists. You may want to think about doing a targeted Facebook ad. One of our local universities has summer enrichment programs for middle school and high school students, and something like this would be perfect!

I would like to take a math class like this!

I would love to take this class.

A blurb would be good, but you’re better off following Prufrock’s advice and specifically trying to contact students. Is it for a particular high school, or is it like math camp at a university? If you went in to the school and talked to student groups you could wow them with your maths.

The main draw for students is probably that you’ll be talking about really cool mathematical concepts. For the parents, maybe your course would teach students how to think in ways that will be useful not just for college-level math, but also for other subjects. Learning how to think about math helps you learn how to think about other things. That will attract the parents, and the kids who like math but who want to use the summer to study something that will have some application.

Or maybe just a poster that says “Hey nerds! Tired of getting beaten up? Take Math Kwan Do this summer with Finkelitis and you’ll be running Cassini ovals around those bullies!”

Think about yourself in those years, and hooks to which you would have responded. Perhaps something like, “Like Math, but think there must be more to it?” or “Did you know you could Read Math?” or “A whiz at games, but want to figure out the algorithms on which they are based?” or “What’s the problem with liking Mathematics?” Just a few ideas.

A math class for parents of middle schoolers that’s a refresher on how to help with Algebra and Geometry homework would be really great. It was a sad day for both of us when we realized I could no longer check math homework.

I hope people are still following. Here’s my first stab at it:
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“Transcendent Mathematics: algebra, geometry, and infinity.”

The most profound mathematical ideas are often embedded in deceptively simple questions. In this course, we’ll study the thread that leads from natural questions like “How can you measure the diagonal of a square” and “How does light reflect of a curved mirror” to some of the deepest ideas humanity has ever come up with.

The central theme of the course will be the problem of infinity. Much of the course will touch on subjects students that students usually don’t see until college or graduate school, such as algebraic geometry, algebraic and transcendent numbers, cardinalities of infinity, as well as Archimedean-style geometric/calculus constructions and various problems in combinatorics and graph theory, time allowing. In the end, nothing will be off limits: we’ll go where our questions lead us.

The course will be rigorous, but accessible to anyone with some exposure to algebra. Bring your curiosity.
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Another course a colleague of mine used to teach along the same lines was called “What is Mathematics?” I could rip off that title too. Anyway, what do people think? Would this appeal to a talented eighth or ninth grader?

I really need help on the title.

Something punchier.

Who likes “Turtles all the way down: infinity and other great mathematical problems.”

I love “Turtles all the way down.”

Do you need to make the description appeal to parents as well as kids? If so, maybe mentioning the specific utility of this type of course would be helpful. Or maybe not.

I don’t know, maybe you should start with something like: ‘Want to learn about some of the deepest ideas humanity has ever come up with?’, and then move on to explaining what math has to do with it. It has a better hook. I like ‘Turtles All the Way Down’, but would they get the reference? (Full disclosure: I didn’t, until I Googled it.) I am sure you were going to anyway, but make sure you proofread it before you submit it.

i’d include the anecdote in the blurb if i used turtles.

i think i do need to appeal to parents as well as students. i was hoping the listing of graduate math topics would get their attention.

Those math topics will appeal to parents and gifted kids : )

One thing that I have always thought is an interesting question is whether is the infinity of whole numbers is smaller than infinity between zero and one. You want to make sure that you present the course as something both a parent and student can grasp, and often you’re looking at kids with higher math ability than their parents possess (speaking from personal experience here.)

Update: here’s my latest. What do you all think?

_________________

Turtles All the Way Down: The Paradox of Infinity and Other Great Mathematical Problems.

Profound mathematical ideas are often embedded in deceptively simple questions. In this course, we’ll see how natural questions like

* How can you make a square with double the area of another square?
* How can you measure the circumference of a circle?
* How does light reflect off a curved mirror?
* Are more numbers rational or irrational?

lead to some of humanity’s deepest ideas.

The central theme of the course will be the problem of infinity. Much of the course will touch on subjects students that students usually don’t see until college or graduate school, such as algebraic geometry, algebraic and transcendent numbers, and cardinalities of infinity, as well as Archimedean-style geometric/calculus constructions, modular arithmetic, and various problems in combinatorics and graph theory, time allowing. In the end, nothing will be off limits: we’ll go where our questions lead us.
The course will be rigorous, but accessible to anyone with some exposure to algebra. Bring your curiosity.

***

A scientist was giving a lecture on astronomy. After the lecture, an elderly lady came up and told the scientist that he had it all wrong. ‘The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist asked “And what is the turtle standing on?”

To which the lady triumphantly replied: “You’re very clever, young man, but it’s no use—it’s turtles all the way down.”

Sounds good, finkelitis! I’d want to take your course : )

‘Students’ inadvertantly appears twice on line 2 of “The central theme…”

Whoops! Thanks, Augustian.