Julia Robinson Math Festivals For the Love of Math Raj Shah ph.d. & travis sperry - math plus academy

For the Love of Math We LOVE math and want to spread that love to others We wanted to create a math festival in Columbus, OH Discovered JRMF through Dan Finkel (Math For Love) Goal: To change the focus from right & wrong to trial & error

How JRMF Works Three to four hour event Featuring tables of rich, deep mathematical problems Staffed by professors, teachers, grad students, etc. Where students are free to engage in any problem

Folding Fractals Get a long strip of paper Fold it in half, right over left Fold it in half again, right over left Open the strip, note the pattern of ⋀ and ⋁ folds What do you notice? Level 1, 2, 3 questions

Vision Inspire a life-long curiosity for mathematics by instilling a genuine interest in creative problem solving for an early age.

History Founded by Nancy Blachman, recreational math enthusiast Named after the late Julia Robinson, mathematics professor at the University of California. Best known for her solution to Hilbert’s Tenth Problem. Started in 2007 at Google and funded by AIM Hosted throughout the US, including Google, Pixar, Stanford and UC Berkeley.

Our Experience (last two years) Grew from 130 to 160 students from 4th to 10th grade Cost: ~$3,000 (venue, resources, marketing, stipends) Planning Time: ~80 hours

Our Experience (details) Recruiting Volunteers: Exploit personal networks Partner with local college math department Activities: Hands-on activities work best Add games to give kids a break Tell parents to give kids freedom to explore and make mistakes Marketing: Distribute flyers via public and private schools Leverage social media channels Call on personal networks