Last Lower School Math Circle of the Year

Nueva Stories

Dice and Randomness

Every now and then we post interesting stories about Nueva and its alums, stories that show some essential quality of Nueva students and education. If you have one, please email it to Matt.

Prior to a freshman World Religions oral exam with twelve potential questions, the teacher informed the class that the students would only need to answer five of the twelve questions, and that he, the teacher, would select the five questions randomly on the day of the test using a pair of dice.

Most of the students, simmering in a late spring stupor, were prepared to blithely follow these instructions. But one Nueva graduate's hand popped up.

"Excuse me Mr. Brown, this method will not result in random questions. We won't need to study question 1 at all, because it will not occur in a pair of dice, and we would concentrate our studies on question 7, as its probability of occurring is the highest.

"I have a 12-sided die at home and can bring it in if that would be of help to you."

Always thinking, speaking up and engaging in class, thinking mathematically, more interested in learning than in finding the easy way, and, of course, using those SEL skills to be helpful rather than confrontational -- several of the hallmarks of Nueva students.

Nueva Stories

Last Lower School Math Circle of the Year

Written by Mar Hershenson

Recently we held the third and last Nueva Math Circle of the 2009-2010 school year. It was a wonderful evening where kids and parents worked together in a variety of math activities.

Yul Inn, founder of "Fun Math Club" (http://www.funmathclub.com), presented some geometric puzzle activities in the library. We also hosted Stan Isaacs (longtime puzzle collector and connoisseur) who shared part of his extensive puzzle collection with us.

The children were split into two groups (mostly by age). The younger ones attended the main presentation first, while the older ones were playing with puzzles. After the dinner, the groups switched.

Based on this year's success (large attendance, very high caliber speakers, lots of enthusiasm), we are now starting to work on the Nueva Math Circle for the next school year. We are looking for volunteers for next year. If you are interested, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Below is a gallery of pictures that capture that magical moment when parent and child are absorbed with each other and the math problem. As with most pictures on this site, click any picture to enlarge, click again to reduce. You can use your keyboard arrow keys to scroll through all of them.

Thanks to all for supporting the first year of the Nueva Math Circle!

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Nueva School is a nationally recognized independent school serving gifted students and emphasizing integrated studies, creative arts, and social-emotional learning. For more than 40 years, Nueva has remained committed to its original vision: to inspire a passion for lifelong learning, foster social and emotional acuity, and develop a child's imaginative mind. Nueva creates a dynamic educational model to enable gifted children to learn how to make choices that will benefit the world.