The Curtis Center is pleased to offer the UCLA Mathematics Institute for Young Scholars in Summer 2009. The Institute is a five-week, day program aimed at helping interested middle and high school students develop in-depth understanding of a mathematical topic outside the typical school curriculum. Under the direction of mathematical physicist Professor Lincoln Chayes, the Institute will consist of course lectures on probability, related problem solving sessions led by UCLA graduate students, and plenary seminars on a variety of topics.

Students will also participate in a number of special outings, including a visit with undergraduate and industry researchers from around the world at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics' Research in Industrial Projects for Students. For more information, continue to check this website and/or contact Heather Calahan at calahan@math.ucla.edu.

UCLA Mathematics alumni Judy and Roy Glickman have made a substantial gift to The Philip C. Curtis Jr. Center for Mathematics and Teaching. The former Harvard-Westlake mathematics teacher and her attorney husband, who also graduated from the UCLA School of Law, met in 1967 as undergraduate UCLA Math majors. Two years later, in 1969, they were married. This February, the couple re-enacted their engagement outside Boelter Hall and made a new commitment to the Curtis Center with a $50,000 donation. We are very grateful for the Glickman's generosity, which will be utilized in the 2008-2009 academic year to support the organizer of the Curtis Center's Los Angeles Mathematics Circle (LAMC). For more information on the Curtis Center and the LAMC,visit http://www.curtiscenter.math.ucla.edu.

On March 13th through March 15th, 2008, the MDTP, MCPT and CMP hosted the second annual UCLA Mathematics and Teaching Conference to over 200 local mathematics teachers, mathematics teacher leaders, university mathematics educators and mathematics professors. The conference provided local mathematics instructors opportunities to learn about pedagogy, mathematics, and current research in mathematics education. The University of Chicago's Professor in Education and overall director of the University of Chicago's School Mathematics Project, Zalman Usiskin gave a stimulating keynote talk on "The Current State of Middle School and High School Mathematics in our Nation."

We were also given the opportunity to honor and celebrate Professor Emeritus Philip C. Curtis' 80th birthday and inaugurate our new Curtis Center. The pre-conference consisted of two days of mathematics talks given by colleagues of Professor Curtis. These talks focused on his research area of Banach algebras and reflected on his contributions to mathematics and mathematics education.

Thank you to the outstanding group of speakers who have agreed to present at this year's conference and to all those who have helped make this event a great success.

Congratulations to Alexandre Boulgakov, Jeff Manning and Patrick Chen who represented the Los Angeles Math Circle (LAMC) team in the 59th Annual American Mathematical Contest (grade 12) and placed fourth in California. The American Mathematical Contest is the first of a series of contests sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America through their program, the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). Twelve students went on to the second stage of the contests, the American Invitational Math Exam, scoring in the top 1% of the AMC 10 or in the top 5% of the AMC 12. In this stage, Alexandre and Jeff scored among the top 500 students in the country and qualified for the nationwide competition, the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) that will take place at the end of April. More congratulations go to LAMC students Jeff Manning who received a first place prize, and Eureka Ma who received an honorable mention in the 10th Bay Area Math Olympiad. BAMO is an annual contest consisting of five proof-type math problems solved over four hours. The event attracts several hundred students from the Bay Area and all over the U.S. For more on the LAMC and K-12 outreach in the Curtis Center for Mathematics and Teaching visit k-12 Outreach.

The writing team for the UCLA Math Content Program for Teachers spent nearly three years developing an algebra readiness program for 8th graders struggling to prepare for algebra. In November 2007, Introduction to Algebra, was approved for adoption in California after a rigorous review process. This means that this program meets or exceeds all State requirements for an algebra readiness textbook and will now be available for purchase by school districts. The team is now developing an algebra readiness program for high school students, and a State-compliant teacher education program to accompany the student materials. For more information about the Introduction to Algebra program, please visit www.introtoalg.org.

In the past year, the CMP accepted proposals from its sites across California for funds from its $5.25 million Postsecondary Education Commission grant to develop program for the retention of mathematics teachers. Ten site proposals were awarded and work for the development of these programs is in full swing.

Redoubled recruitment efforts in the past academic year resulted in a dramatic tripling of the enrollment in the department's Joint Math Education Program and a doubling of the enrollment in the department's Subject Matter Preparation Program (SMPP). The math/ed group also completed and submitted a proposal to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to renew the SMPP, which allows students to earn "subject matter competence" by completing a group of traditional departmental courses along with M105, the Teaching of Mathematics.