Teachers act not as a tutor, but as a mentor ready to help a group of students who are working together on a problem with a direction or a suggestion, not necessarily with a solution. It is the other students in the group that are the first resource. The students work in groups of four or five the teachers and mentors respond when a group needs assistance. These former students returning to Calculus Camp is a testament to what the camp has meant to their lives. The past few years has seen an increase in the number of former LACES students who return to Calculus Camp to help the current LACES students. The benefit to the students is not measurable in a traditional sense, but it is undeniable for all those that see it working during the weekend. This interaction with the adult professionals is something that is different from the ordinary in their lives. Dean Becker and Ken Bailey have also been a huge help over the years. This past year Lin McMullin attended the LACES Calculus Camp for the first time! Former colleagues of mine C. Lewis Mingori of UCLA (retired) have come back year after year to help the LACES students. Kyran Mish formerly of the University of Oklahoma, and Dr. Michael Raugh of Harvey Mudd College (retired), Dr. Teachers from LACES, other teachers, professors, and professional mathematicians are invited to come to Calculus Camp to help the students of LACES. They take a mock test on Sunday morning as a way of gauging their progress over the course of the weekend. Over the weekend they put in as many as 24 hours doing Calculus. The students are kept quite busy over the course of the weekend with two study sessions on Thursday, and three each on Friday and Saturday. The students load the buses at noon on a Thursday to travel to Calculus Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains 90 minutes north of Los Angeles. to provide an opportunity for students to meet and work with people actively involved in a career in mathematics.to further increase participation in Advanced Placement Mathematics classes and to improve the pass rate of our students taking Advanced Placement Mathematics classes.to build a mathematics program so strong and inviting that a large percentage of students-perhaps even every student-could be prepared to successfully complete challenging mathematics courses such as calculus before leaving LACES.to enhance all students’ achievement by creating an environment that would cause them to take a new look at higher levels of mathematics.to create a support structure necessary to make high achievement by all AP mathematics students a reality.The camp was large scale effort requiring a large-scale commitment on the part of the mathematics department. LACES was already a high-achieving school, but this did not mean there were not a lot of challenges. The past three years LACES has had over 200 students taking Advanced Placement mathematics. The camp began with only forty students and just a handful of teachers, but the excitement generated by the opportunity to go to camp to help them prepare for the College Board Advanced Placement Test increased the number of students taking Calculus each year. So what are the teachers at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies (LACES) doing differently along with generous help from professors, math professionals, and some parents doing to attract upwards of 200 students to take Calculus each year? The answer… Calculus Camp!Ĭalculus Camp was first organized by me fourteen years ago when I was LACES Department Chair. Many high schools around the nation have only eight to fifteen kids taking Calculus in any given school year. Thank you Robert for the Blog and the weekend with your students I was honored to be invited this year and had a great time helping the kids. The annual camp is a great review technique. Robert Vriesman writes about his Calculus Camp.
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