University of Chicago's VIGRE Program

教学和研究的垂直整合一直是数学系在芝加哥几十年的传统。 与许多顶级研究部门不同，我们一直将大学预科教育视为我们使命的一部分。 我们的第一个五年VIGRE赠款对我们各级的计划产生了重大影响，我们的目标是利用第二个五年赠款来巩固这些实验性的新计划。 我们在这里介绍其中两个最有特色的项目。多年来，我们系的成员一直在为芝加哥地区的高中生（YSP，或青年学者项目）和芝加哥公立学校的教师（SESP）开展项目，最集中的是在夏季。 在VIGRE的支持下，我们启动了REU夏季计划。 本科生，主要是数学专业，既学习新的数学，这是不是标准课程的一部分，并在YSP和SEESTO计划任教。 REU的双重性质已经被证明是非常受欢迎和成功的。第一个VIGRE预算有18名本科生参加了REU。 2005年，将有62人从84名申请者中选出，他们都是芝加哥大学的学生。 研究生担任本科生的导师，2005年有34名研究生参加。 博士后和高级教师，2005年各7人，在REU任教，其他人在YSP和SEESTO任教。 第二个引人注目的新项目是指导阅读计划（DRP），在学年的每个季度，15名研究生一对一指导15名本科生，每周探讨一个共同感兴趣的话题。 这是在正常的本科课程负荷之上，表现出学习的愿望。 值得注意的是，研究生们同时发起和管理这个项目，他们征集和评估申请，安排配对，举办晚上的会议，让本科生们在会上演讲，并通过他们准备的评估表格来监督项目的实施，所有参与者都必须填写这些表格。 有最低限度的教师监督。 一位在其他地方读研究生的本科生参与者正在努力在她的新学校建立这样一个项目。这些项目和VIGRE支持的其他项目使本科数学专业的比例翻了一番，达到约7.5%，远高于可比本科学校的比例。许多人继续研究生学习数学，最近芝加哥的本科生可以在大多数主要的数学研究生院找到。 通过新的VIGRE赠款，我们的目标是使这些和其他成功的创新成为我们永久计划的一部分。 这些计划可以作为一个模型，我们的VIGRE支持的参与者预计将在其他地方发起类似的活动中发挥重要作用。

Vertical integration of teaching and research has been a tradition of the Department of Mathematics at Chicago for decades. Unlike many top research departments, we have always viewed a role in precollegiate education as part of our mission. Our first five-year VIGRE grant has had major impact on our programs at all levels, and we aim to use the second five-year grant to consolidate these experimental new programs. We describe two of the most distinctive of these programs here.Members of our Department have for many years run programs aimed at Chicago area high school students (the YSP, or Young Scholars Program) and at Chicago public school teachers (SESAME), most intensively during the summer. With VIGRE support, we initiated an REU summer program. Undergraduates, primarily mathematics majors, both learn new mathematics that is not part of the standard curriculum and teach in the YSP and SESAME programs. The dual nature of the REU has proven to be spectacularly and unexpectedly popular and successful.The first VIGRE budget had 18 undergraduate participants in the REU. In 2005, there will be 62, chosen from 84 applicants, all University of Chicago students. Graduate students serve as mentors to the undergraduates, with 34 graduate participants in 2005. Postdocs and senior faculty, 7 each in 2005, teach in the REU, and others teach in YSP and SESAME. There are over 400 total participants from the various levels.A second striking new program is the Directed Reading Program (DRP), in which 15 graduate students mentor 15 undergraduates one-on-one during each quarter of the academic year, exploring a topic of mutual interest weekly. This is on top of the regular undergraduate course load, showing a desire to learn. Remarkably, the graduate students both initiated the program and run it. They solicit and evaluate applications, set up the pairings, run evening sessions at which the undergraduates give talks, and monitor the program through evaluation forms that they prepare and that must be filled out by all participants. There is minimal faculty supervision. One undergraduate participant who has gone on to graduate study elsewhere is working to institute such a program at her new school.These and other VIGRE-supported programs have doubled the proportion of undergraduate mathematics majors to about 7.5%, well above the percentage at comparable undergraduate schools. Many go on to graduate study in mathematics, and recent Chicago undergraduates can be found at most major graduate departments of mathematics. With the new VIGRE grant, we aim to make these and other successful innovations part of our permanent program. These programs can serve as a model, with our VIGRE-supported participants expected to play a large role in initiating analogous activities elsewhere.