Math Appreciation for High School Students

(Alternative Transcript Title: Topics in Mathematical Modeling, Optimization, and Artificial Intelligence)

Class Time: 11:05 - 12:05, Fall Semester

Grade Level:  11th - 12th (10th grade with permission)

Instructor: Laura Burke 

Contact Information: lauraburke703@gmail.com 

Course Description: Math. It seems like you either love it or hate it - there’s no middle ground. But just because you’re not a math fan doesn’t mean you can’t use it or even enjoy it! Have you ever heard of music and art appreciation? This seminar will focus on the fascinating ways math can be appreciated and applied, with examples in nature, medicine, engineering, business and others.  We’ll look at puzzles and their solutions, and real problems that can be made into puzzles. Students who have an interest in math can delve a bit deeper with an Honors option. Either way, this is a chance to look at math a little differently! Homework will generally be light.

Topics will include: 

• The “Evidential Power of Beauty” in math (from the title of the book by Fr. Thomas Dubay)
• Math in nature 
• “Pure math,” series of numbers, sums of numbers, and baffling results! 
• Puzzles and questions that illustrate the power of creative problem solving 
• Optimization and Artificial intelligence (neural networks/machine learning) 

We’ll ask and try to answer questions like: How on earth can that be true? Can math be beautiful? What’s really behind “artificial intelligence”? What does it mean for a problem to be technically difficult? How can you use math to decide how to maximize your chance to win a prize or best feed your pigs? Does math appreciation inspire a belief in God?  

Tuition: $200

Teacher Qualifications:  Laura Burke has been teaching for NCHS since its inception in 2014.  She earned her doctorate in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at University of California, Berkeley, and was Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Lehigh University. She retired from academia to homeschool her children, and has enjoyed teaching Physics, Physical Science, and Math Appreciation to middle and high school students as a community homeschool instructor since 2010. In 2021, the youngest of her three children graduated from homeschooling. Laura is a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena Church.