The Maryland Mathematics Institute

In June 2009, the Department of Mathematics at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland plans to offer the 2009 Maryland Mathematics Institute (MMI). This is a week-long group of presentations, activities and discussions that are designed to be stimulating, useful and accessible to secondary school teachers.

The inaugural 2008 MMI was launched with special support from Prince George's County for its participating teachers. A final survey of the participating teachers included unsolicited comments such as "The program is fantastic!" and "Continue to make the best faculty the lead lecturers," and "This program is a must for math teachers," and "This is as close to perfect as any teacher development course I've taken."

The Department of Mathematics envisions the MMI as an annual one-week, two-credit summer course featuring several College Park faculty. The aim is to provide high school mathematics teachers with interesting and enjoyable mathematics relevant to teaching high school students, and to communicate to the teachers the pleasure and relevance of mathematics. The topics entailed in the MMI will go beyond the standard courses preparatory for teaching high school mathematics.

The Department also aims to build communication between College Park faculty (primarily from the Mathematics Department but also from Mathematics Education) and high school teachers, and to provide high school mathematics teachers a setting to learn from each other and enhance their own community.