Teaching Calculus to Little Children

Seeing is believing and some shT is better experienced than heard. My peoples are on the verge of starting a program where kids ages seven to ten will be taking part in a pilot program in whcih they will learn advanced math concepts. An interesting concept indeed.

It is set to kick-off on Friday, March 3rd in a joint effort between several organizations who want to make an impact. The purpose of this program is to engage our children in the STEM career paths at an early age (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), thus increasing the number of minorities students of color in the STEM pipeline. The students will meet every Friday for 90 minutes and there is already a commitment from six students (and their parents) to try this thing out.

This site outlines the concept and the types of problems the students will encounter. The program will use a predefined curriculum that begins with basic multiplication tables
and fractions and builds up to calculus using elementary concepts. My homegirl Dr. ZMC breaks it down, "I explain to parents that if calculus is taught intuitively, beginning with its foundation in basic arithmetic (fractions and multiplication plus the concept of infinity and infinitesmal increments) it can be taught to 2nd graders. Also, there is "proof in the pudding" because I have talked to mathematicians who have done projects of this nature with 2nd graders (most notably, the author of the material and the the director of a math academy plus the founder of Mathmagic in Cambridge)."

Having read about the Algebra Project, the recent interest and buzz over the Numb3rs Tv show, and my own exposure to over-mis-ill-under-educated youth, I can see this poppin off lovely. Don't you?