University of Chicago's VIGRE Program

几十年来，教学和研究的垂直整合一直是芝加哥数学系的传统。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。我们的第一个五年期VIGRE拨款对我们各级的项目产生了重大影响，我们的目标是利用第二个五年期拨款来巩固这些实验性的新项目。我们在这里描述两个最具特色的程序。多年来，我们部门的成员针对芝加哥地区的高中生（YSP，或青年学者计划）和芝加哥公立学校教师（SESAME）开展了一些项目，这些项目在夏季集中进行。在VIGRE的支持下，我们启动了REU暑期项目。本科生，主要是数学专业的学生，既要学习不属于标准课程的新数学，也要在YSP和SESAME项目中教授。REU的双重性质已被证明是惊人的和出乎意料的流行和成功。VIGRE的第一个预算有18名REU的本科生参加。2005年，将从84名申请者中选出62名，他们都是芝加哥大学的学生。研究生为本科生的导师，2005年有34名研究生参加。在REU任教的博士后和高级教师2005年各7人，在YSP和SESAME任教的有其他人。共有超过400名来自不同阶层的参加者。第二个引人注目的新项目是定向阅读项目（DRP）， 15名研究生在学年的每个季度一对一地指导15名本科生，每周探讨一个共同感兴趣的话题。这是在常规的本科课程负担之上，显示出学习的愿望。值得注意的是，研究生们既发起了这个项目，也在运行它。他们征求和评估申请，安排配对，安排晚上的会议，本科生在会上演讲，并通过他们准备的评估表格来监督项目，所有参与者都必须填写评估表格。教师监督很少。一位在其他地方继续研究生学习的本科生参与者正在努力在她的新学校设立这样一个项目。这些和其他vigre支持的项目使数学专业的本科生比例翻了一番，达到7.5%左右，远高于同类本科院校的比例。许多人继续攻读数学研究生，芝加哥大学最近的本科生可以在大多数主要的数学研究生院系找到。有了新的VIGRE奖助金，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。这些项目可以作为一种模式，我们的vigre支持的参与者有望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.