School’s back

KTU hands-on exercises at Virginia Tech Math Emporium

The second semester of KTU begins in January 2010. Kristy DiVittorio, Co-Principal Investigator of KTU at VBI, comments, “This semester KTU has a partnership with Tazewell County Public Schools and Tazewell 4-H to reach and involve economically disadvantaged students and their parents with the KTU program. KTU will also be attending a host of exciting new venues around the Virginia Tech campus.” An additional new component of the program will also encompass training of teachers from around the state of Virginia. This will provide opportunities for teachers to acquire Continuing Education Units to advance their professional career development. Kathleen Jamison, Extension Specialist for 4-H Youth Development at the Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia Tech, will be spearheading this part of the program.

New and returning children of KTU will be ready to tackle questions like “What is the smallest thing a person can see?” and “Why can’t humans walk on water and climb walls with their fingertips like spiders?” Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Professor Arthur Benjamin, who has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, and National Public Radio, will demonstrate his mixture of mathematics and magic, which he calls “Mathemagics,” and explain how to mentally solve complex math problems faster than a calculator. Returning KTU lecturer Louis Guillette will explain why alligators are important to the swamps and what they can tell us about the world in which we live.

Says Laubenbacher: “We have something special here which I would like to see take root across the country. We can provide virtual resources that will make it possible for other universities to set up their own KTUs across the United States. In this way, I believe we could take a big step forward for the future of science in this country.”