Girls Excel in Math (GEM)

GEM aims to establish and support a community of fourth through seventh grade Twin City girls who are interested in math. Forming lasting friendships and a strong student-mentor bond with a teacher are important goals for the GEM program.

We know that spending time with other girls who enjoy challenging math activities reinforces a girl's own pleasure in and enthusiasm for the subject. To this end, GEM will recruit dedicated teachers from different metro-area Public School Districts who will in turn recruit girls from their classes or their school. In this way, a teacher and a group of girls can continue working together between and after program events.

During the 2007-08, fifteen teachers, each with 10 students will be participating in 4 events on the University of Minnesota campus.

Tessellating Patterns- Saturday, October 6, 2007
Examine tessellating patterns, and create your own tessellation print. Learn about the symmetry of polygons and how these patterns are linked to nature, art, and science.

Origami- Saturday, November 3, 2007
Visualize geometric concepts by creating geometric shapes using origami-folding sequences. Challenge your problem solving skills by connecting basic geometric shapes to create as many different polyhedra models as possible.

Packing Cannonballs and M&M’s- Saturday, February 2, 2008
What is the best way to pack cannonballs together? It took mathematicians over 400 years to prove that grocery stores had it right all along: the best way to pack round objects is the familiar way that oranges are piled at the store. Learn why it took so long to figure this out, and which other possibilities were discarded along the way. We’ll also talk about M&M’s, bees, honeycombs, tiling, and other important mathematical ideas.

Celebration of Pi- Saturday, March 15, 2008
Come celebrate the Greek letter Pi, which has several uses in mathematics and physics, as well as completing a year in the GEM program. Learn about the uses of Pi and enjoy some Pie!

This program is sponsored by the Center for Energy and the Environment. For more information about there programs and services - click here.