MITxplore has the goal of teaching young students ("explorers") interesting and unusual math topics not typically covered in the standard school curriculum. We do this through a Socratic-style approach, guiding students through questioning and exploration so that they find a solution to the problem on their own rather than by following a specific set of instructions.
Mission & Vision
Team
Partners
History
Our mission is to improve students' ability to think logically in the context of mathematics for the purpose of critically analyzing their current knowledge, arriving at new understanding, and improving their problem solving skills. The program is divided into a theoretical and a practical component. In the theoretical component of the program, the young explorers discover new areas of mathematics, sparking their curiosity and nurturing their logical reasoning. In the practical component, the explorers improve their problem solving skills by completing exercises and participating in fun activities. The set of skills MITxplore is designed to nurture will empower the explorers to continue their exploration of mathematics, as well as other fields, well beyond their involvement in our program.
Our vision is to locally build MITxplore as a mathematics outreach program that has been fine-tuned through careful analysis and quality assessment. Eventually, we aim to make MITxplore available beyond the borders of Massachusetts so children across the nation can discover their inner mathematical explorer. We hope to establish connections with other leading academic institutions across the country, while also building an -xplore framework containing all the information and tools necessary for others to implement our program. This framework will be made publicly accessible and will be used as a basis for establishing a network of interacting -xplore programs. We will foster collaboration within this network and work together as a team to help students around the country explore the fascinating world of mathematics.
Paul Gallagher
President
Emily Tow
Treasurer
David Blum
Math Day Organizer
Ashin Modak
Weekly Session Organizer
Lee Weinstein
Webmaster
Jane Chui
Dhiraj Holden
Ethan Jaffe
Mallory Jensen
Ina Kundu
Bethany Lettiere
Erin Looney
John Napp
Thomas Sayre-McCord
You can become a partner of MITxplore: make a personal donation or get involved directly.
If your organization is interested in becoming a partner of MITxplore, please contact us.
MITxplore was founded by three MIT graduate students in 2012: Leon Dimas, Narges Kaynia, and Debbie Nguyen. They observed the need for an outreach program that:
The first weekly program was started in Fall 2012 at Fletcher Maynard Academy in Cambridge. MITxplore later expanded to The Hurley School in Boston and to the Dorchester YMCA. In Fall 2013, a weekly session was started on the MIT campus. MITxplore began hosting bi-annual Math Days in 2013, with the first event in Fall 2013 bringing in an attendance of 80 explorers. By Fall 2014, Math Day had expanded to 200 students.
MITxplore was led by Leon Dimas and Narges Kaynia from the founding of MITxplore until Fall 2015, when they both graduated. Paul Gallagher took over from Leon and Narges in 2015, and continues to pursue MITxplore's mission along with the rest of the mentor team.