Take a fun placement class, meet with our staff and identify the proper course level of your child.
When you hear the name Newton and math together, you probably think of Sir Isaac. At IMACS we think of Paula Newton and her family whose mathematical talents have flourished for three generations. Their story begins in the 1960s when Paula was a gifted math student at Nova High School under the tutelage of IMACS co-founder Burt … Continue Reading
Can you link all nine dots using four or fewer straight lines, without lifting your finger and without tracing the same line more than once? We all understand what is meant when a person exclaims, “That’s so creative!” This is a typical reaction to a new and often pleasing, useful or clever idea. It might … Continue Reading
Georg Cantor was a mathematician who invented the branch of math known as set theory. He lived from 1845 to 1918. Try this fun logic puzzle about time traveling to meet Cantor. Professor Henderton from University College is obsessed with set theory and Georg Cantor. Ever since Henderton wrote his dissertation on Cantor’s theory of … Continue Reading
Try this fun puzzle and learn about the Collatz conjecture. Zara Zeld, a math Professor at the University of Sikinia, was trying to understand why it seemed like you could pick any positive integer, do some simple math and always end at the number 1. The simple math was this: If the number is odd, … Continue Reading
Challenge yourself and your friends with this fun number puzzle. Martin Gardner was one of the most important American puzzlers and popular science writers ever. He lived from 1914-2010, and wrote thousands of fascinating puzzles in his lifetime, as well as writing a deeply important popular science column weekly for 25 years. Some of the … Continue Reading
Try this puzzle! Alexa, Barney, Cara, Dylan, Ethan, and Frances are all planning to compete in the Kangaroo Math Contest, and each week they write Kangaroo Math sample questions and answers for each other so they can practice. Each kid writes one problem for exactly one other kid, and each kid receives one problem from … Continue Reading
What is mathematical logic? What do you get when you combine math, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics? Mathematical logic! The big goal of mathematical logic is to link human language and thinking with math. In short, mathematical logic tries to understand math concepts through patterns that feel natural to your brain. Mathematicians who study mathematical … Continue Reading
Keep math exciting, and your kids will keep doing math. Hello, logic puzzles! Logic puzzles for kids are a great way to pique your child’s interest in mathematics since logic and math go hand-in-hand. Any time kids are engrossed in tricky brain teasers, they’re building the skills they’ll eventually use to ace the SAT, lead … Continue Reading
IMACS alumna Naomi Spargo sent the following email at the end of her first semester at Carnegie Mellon University. She details the ways in which her IMACS background in mathematical logic, proof-writing, and functional programming propelled her to research and teaching assistant opportunities in only her freshman year at computer science powerhouse CMU. Dear IMACS, … Continue Reading
Cole Travers completed the EMF Math program during grades 6-8 through his public school district. He wrote the following guest blog post in which he compares EMF with a traditional high school math class and explains why EMF was excellent preparation for college. Throughout my three years in EMF, I got to learn mathematics in … Continue Reading
Isabella Yeung completed the EMF Math program during grades 6-8 through her public school district. She wrote the following guest blog post to share her memories of the program and advice for current and future EMF students. EMF truly is an amazing program. (No, I’m not saying this just because – I mean it with … Continue Reading
The IMACS Blog reconnects with alumnus Mark Engelberg who has released three coding games through ThinkFun. Mark’s passion for computer science, math and logic led him to an award-winning career in puzzle and game design. He is also an active speaker in the Clojure programming language community. In this post, Mark talks with IMACS about … Continue Reading
This year IMACS celebrates 20 years of educating talented, young students in mathematics and computer science. In all this time, we have never wavered in our philosophy that providing children with a deep and strong foundation in logical reasoning would enable them to take on virtually any intellectual pursuit with ease and confidence. In mathematics, … Continue Reading
Why do we bother teaching children their ABC’s when they are so young? It’s not as if they are going to write the next Gettysburg Address once they know the difference between b and d. Why do piano teachers spend so much time with their beginning students on proper finger placement? It’s not like they … Continue Reading