University of Chicago's VIGRE Program

芝加哥大学 VIGRE 项目

• 批准号: 0502215
• 负责人: J May
• 金额: $ 365万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0502215&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: University; Chicago; VIGRE; Program

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.

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，我们始终将大学前教育视为我们使命的一部分。 我们的第一个五年期 VIGRE 赠款对我们各个级别的项目产生了重大影响，我们的目标是利用第二个五年期赠款来巩固这些实验性新项目。 我们在这里描述其中两个最独特的项目。多年来，我们部门的成员一直在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）开展项目，其中最集中的是在夏季。 在 VIGRE 的支持下，我们启动了 REU 夏季项目。 本科生（主要是数学专业）既学习不属于标准课程的新数学，又在 YSP 和 SESAME 项目中任教。 REU 的双重性质已被证明出人意料地受到欢迎和成功。第一个 VIGRE 预算有 18 名本科生参加了 REU。 2005年，将从84名申请者中选出62名，全部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。2005 年，博士后和高级教师各 7 名，在 REU 任教，其他人在 YSP 和 SESAME 任教。 共有来自各个级别的 400 多名参与者。第二个引人注目的新项目是定向阅读项目 (DRP)，其中 15 名研究生在学年的每个季度一对一指导 15 名本科生，每周探索共同感兴趣的主题。 这是在常规本科课程负担之上的，表现出学习的愿望。 值得注意的是，研究生既发起并运行了该项目。 他们征求和评估申请，安排配对，举办晚上的课程，让本科生进行演讲，并通过他们准备的、必须由所有参与者填写的评估表来监督项目。 教师的监督最少。 一名在其他地方继续攻读研究生的本科生正在努力在她的新学校设立这样一个项目。这些项目和其他 VIGRE 支持的项目使本科数学专业的比例翻了一番，达到 7.5% 左右，远高于同类本科学校的比例。许多人继续攻读数学研究生，最近的芝加哥本科生可以在大多数主要数学研究生院找到。 通过新的 VIGRE 拨款，我们的目标是将这些和其他成功的创新纳入我们永久计划的一部分。 这些计划可以作为一个模型，我们 VIGRE 支持的参与者预计将在其他地方发起类似活动中发挥重要作用。