Welcome to my Professional Enrichment and K-12 educational outreach Programs home Page



Over the last decade, I have actively initiated or directed or participated in a variety of K-12 educational outreach and professional mathematics enrichment programs. I have also served on the board of directors for the Science and Engineering Fair in Texas and am currently serving on the Northern Virginia board of MATHCOUNTS and a member of the Center for Teaching Excellence at George Mason University. Listed below are details of some of the enrichment programs:

GMU Research Experiences for Undergraduates

The Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University hosted a multidisciplinary undergraduate research program in computational mathematics and nonlinear dynamics of biological, bio-inspired and engineering systems . This first-time summer program at GMU exposed eight qualified mathematics undergraduate students and a K-12 teacher to advanced topics in mathematics, problem-solving techniques and multidisciplinary applications. Selected problems ranged from Reconstruction of Protein networks and Aneurysm mechanics to Modeling of Micro Air Vehicles, Neuronal field models, Porous substrates and Materials engineering applications. The overall goal of this program is to encourage students and teachers to learn by discovery and enhance their understanding of the multidisciplinary role of mathematics in engineering, science and medicine. More details about the program can be found at: GMU REU Program . See the Office of Sponsored Research Newsletter for interview with the participants.

IMPACT

The purpose of Project IMPACT, Improving Mathematical Practices via Algebraic Connections and Technology in Elementary and Middle School Mathematics, is to create a collaborative network for teachers to plan lessons, exchange best instructional practices and effective uses of tech-knowledgy tools to design instructional tasks that promote algebraic conceptual thinking. This project is led by Dr. Jennifer Suh and Dr. Padhu Seshaiyer at George Mason University through grants funded by the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia. This program is a partnership of the Center for Mathematics Education and Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University with the Fairfax County, Prince William, Hopewell, Norfolk and Petersburg public school districts.

UAP and URCM

During the academic year 2008-2010, Ms. Sarah Minerva Venuti performed multidisciplinary research with Dr. Padmanabhan Seshaiyer from Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University (GMU) on mathematical modeling, and simulation of a fluid-structure interaction problem with applications to intracranial saccular aneurysms. Sponsored in part by the Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program (GMU) and Computational Mathematics program (NSF), this transformative research project provided a unique experience of how mathematics can be applied effectively to understand the qualitative and quantitative behavior of a biological system. Briefly, the associated problem involved solving coupled partial differential equations for fluids (modeling blood and cerebral spinal fluid) interacting with elastic structures modeling aneurysms using novel approaches. The mathematical tools developed as a part of this transformative research project can be extended to get a better insight and understand the mechanics of rupture of aneurysms which leads to bleeding wi thin the head (hemorrhaging), hence causing subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Ms. Venuti's project was one of the projects that received the outstanding research award at the second annual SIAM undergraduate poster session held on July 7 at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in Denver, Colorado. More details can be found at: SIAM Undergraduate Research Awards .

ACT NOW

This program is a partnership of the Center for Mathematics Education and Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason University with the Fairfax County Public School System and is sponsored in part by a grant from SCHEV (State Council of Higher Education for Virginia) Improving Teacher Quality State Grant. The purpose of A.C.T. NOW (Algebraic Connections and Technology in Middle Grades NOW), is to create a collaborative network for knowledge development in mathematics teaching and learning. This two-week summer institute (held for the first time in August 2008) provided a forum for teachers to collaboratively plan lessons, exchange best instructional practices and effective uses of tech-knowledgy tools to design instructional tasks that promote algebraic conceptual thinking. See GMU Gazette article .



AWM Teacher Partnership Program

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Teacher Partnership is intended to link teachers of mathematics in schools, museums, technical institutes, two-year colleges, and universities with other teachers working in an environment different from their own and with mathematicians working in business and industry. As a part of this program, Dr. Seshaiyer currently partners with Ms. Kris Kappmeyer at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program in Arlington. This successful partnership has been focussed in the August 2008 AWM Newsletter as a model for other partnerships to follow.



Through this partnership, I also had the opportunity to mentor one of the students Alicia Hamar for her science fair project. Alicia's project which involved applications of math to medicine just recently won the Grand Prize Winner; Best in Fair; First place and best project in Medicine & Health at the Northern Virginia Regional Science & Engineering Fair; 1st place in CIA /invitation to CIA Science Fair Recognition Ceremony; Patent And Trademark Office Society/1st place Certificate of Outstanding Achievement; 1st place United states Army/Certificate of Merit-Life Sciences. Moreover, Alicia has been invited to participate in the 2009 Intel ISEF that will be held in Reno, Nevada (May 10-15 2009.)

Mathematics Enrichment Activities at Whiteoaks Elementary

In 2008, I partnered with Whiteoaks Elementary school of the Fairfax County Public School System on engaging Mrs. Vonda Barrow's second grade class room in mathematics through problem solving, art, games, history, culture and even magic. The most recent project involved introducing the students to the Abacus and also building one. The students had a lot of fun building their own Abacus using simple ingredients such as a picture frame, bamboo sticks, color beads and Popsicle sticks. There are many useful mathematical concepts such as place-value, the decimal number system and arithmetic that the kids are learning using their own personal abacus.




Mason Dream-Catchers Program

In the academic year 2008-09, I served as a mentor for Mr. Mohamed Hashi from Pimmit Hills High School. Dream-Catchers, an initiative of the Provost's Office, is a partnership between George Mason University and Fairfax County Public Schools. The program provides hope for capable at-risk youth enrolled in alternative education programs. To ensure success, these young adults are paired with mentors from the Mason community and the Northern Virginia region during the six years of the program. The students are also provided positive role models and financial aid. Mohamed will be starting at Northern VA college in Fall 2008 and hopes to come to GMU soon. Dr. Seshaiyer will mentor him and help him reach his academic goals! See University News from the Office of the President


Sally Ride Science Festival for Girls

Sally Ride Science Festivals are designed to encourage 5th-8th grade girls in science. One of the festivals features include discovery workshops for 5th-8th grade girls, given by local scientists and engineers. This year, George Mason University hosted the event on April 18, 2009 and I presented one of the discovery workshops titled "Mathemagic Across Culture and History".


NCC New Horizons Enrichment Camps - Math Mania

New Horizons Math Mania Camp is the perfect camp for discovering creative ways to work with math. Whether the camper is skilled in math experiences "math-anxiety" this is a camp that turns math into an adventure. Students will be exposed to multidisciplinary and multicultural problem-solving through hands-on activities, mathematical games, pattern recognition, paper and pencil techniques, historical connections, "Mathemagic" and a lot more! Campers delight in learning to do math through art, building an abacus, and estimating the height of buildings on campus. The Math Mania Camp also includes outdoor games on campus, swimming in Mason's Aquatic and Fitness Center, and time for review and reflection. At New Horizons Math Mania Camp students develop life skills that help them to: (a) Demonstrate greater confidence in their mathematical abilities; (b) Problem solve in creative ways that goes beyond mathematics; (c) Work cooperatively with others and; (d) Understand the larger world.


Research Experience for Undergraduates and K-12 teachers

As the Principal Investigator, I directed a very successful Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in Summer 2006 and Summer 2007 on multidisciplinary research in computation and control of biological and biologically inspired systems . The research program that was funded by the National Science Foundation REU and Department of Defense ASSURE program, exposed sixteen highly qualified undergraduate students and two K-12 teachers, to advanced topics in mathematics, problem-solving techniques and applications to biological systems. The research program involved problems from four principal topics: Computational Modeling; Systems and Control; Geometric Modeling; Complex Analysis and Applications. This eight-week summer program included the following activities: lecture series on topics; mentoring club; guest colloquium; student seminars; computational laboratory and; scientific & social tours.



Summer Mathematics Academy

This academy was initiated in 2004 with a sincere effort to develop a program that will provide an opportunity to motivate the most creative minds from high schools around West Texas to the advances in mathematics and sciences. This program has graduated over 35 K10-12 highschool students. The specific mission statement of the academy was: In 2006, this program was one of the 12 summer programs in the nation that were selected to receive the American Mathematical Society Epsilon grants. As a part of the program, each participant had the opportunity to perform research with faculty (one on one) for three weeks in the summer, prepare a 10 page paper on their topic and make a final presentation on their research. Here is the batch of 2006. An energetic and bright group of K10-12 high school students that apparently had a great time working on cool mathematical research.





Calculations Across Culture and History

This was an outreach program developed in conjunction with K-12 International Education Outreach at Texas Tech University. Every semester the project gives a two and half hour workshop for upto 60 K4-6 grade students and their teachers where the kids are taken through a magical journey through various countries and learn about the arithmetic from that country. The purpose was to expose the elementary school students to interesting examples of calculation that permit the introduction of elements of cultural diversity, geography, history and mathematics. Of course we had everything from the Chinese Abacus to Vedic Mathematics to French Subtraction to the Slide Rule and many more topics!







Mental Math Camps

With the collaboration of the K-12 outreach division of Science Spectrum, Lubbock, TX, I was able to host a series of workshops that promoted highspeed mental calculations. These are particularly useful for problems involving number sense where the calculations must be performed incredibly fast. As I always say, Afterall who made the calculators...We did, right? So, how can the calculators be faster than the human mind! This was exactly the theme of this workshop series. Two newspaper articles were also released at various time on this whose links are given below.


Science: It's A Girl Thing

Designed for girls that like science, Science: It's a Girl Thing is a four day/three night summer camp for girls found only at Texas Tech. Girls participating in Science: It's a Girl Thing get a fun, interdisciplinary science experience, attending hands-on science classes and spending the night on campus in residence halls. I have participated as an instructor in the multiple day session on "Multidisciplinary and Multicultural Problem Solving" which is a complete hands-on experience for the kids to learn problem solving and having fun with mathematics at the same time.

Here is my class of K5-7th graders on the last day of the session, where I trained them to build their own version of the chinese abacus. We then learn about the counting system from China and use the abacus to solve problems!




Emmy Noether High School Mathematics Day

The Emmy Noether High School Mathematics Day is an annual event that was initiated at Texas Tech that provides the opportunity to K 9-12 highschool girls each year to discover and be enlightened about science, mathematics, and problem solving. Each year at the end of spring, around 200 girls from various surrounding highschools visit the campus to take part in the full day event. The day starts with a mathematics competition which is followed by several workshops that are presented to the students and teachers by faculty, and finally ends with a career panel. The planned activities clearly demonstrated the application of mathematics to diverse disciplines, particularly to the fields of engineering, science, and computer science, and to a wide range of career opportunities. I was one of the founding members of this annual event and a principal member of the organizing committee!




South Plains Regional Science and Engineering Fair

I served for four years (2004-2007) on the board of directors for the South Plains Regional Science and Engineering Fair . My primary responsibility was to be the Director of judging which involved coordinating, assigning judges (over 150 each year) to judge the K4-12 projects (over 800 each year!) and evaluating the projects with the board to decide on the winners that will go to the National competition. This was one of the most fun and fulfilling event that I have been involved in. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the board...couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work with! Here is a picture of me that was published on the program website See and Laugh!

Super Saturdays: Math Mania

I was the instructor for the Math Mania program that was one of the sessions that were offered to K2-5 graders as a part of the Super Saturday program hosted every semester by the IDEAL and the Division of Outreach and Distance Learning at Texas Tech. I had the oppotunity to help the participants explore the wonderful world of mathematics through magic, culture, games and a veriety of hands-on activities. They learnt to organize arithmetical work, perform high-speed paper and mental calculations, estimate the height of buildings and more. (Sorry, don't have pictures!)

Freshman Seminar

I enjoyed teaching this seminar course that introduces freshmen to the complex and exciting world of university life. The seminar class was open and available to all freshmen at Texas Tech University and particularly those students who wished to acquire the skills necessary to take control of their own education, and to maximize their university experience. Students are trained to develop special skills such as successful note and test-taking, time management and report writing, oral presentations and critical reading. They also learn problem-solving techniques, as well as receive information on the many resources available to them at the university.

Mentor Tech

I served as a mentor for two freshmen students in the Texas Tech University Mentor-Tech program (formerly known as the Lauro Cavazos & Ophelia Powell-Malone Mentoring Program), the purpose of which is to enhance the quality of the educational experience of African American and Hispanic students through programs, services, advocacy, campus and community involvement. The program is named for Dr. Lauro Cavazos, who was president of Texas Tech and later the first Hispanic appointed to a cabinet level position when President Ronald Reagan appointed him Secretary of Education in 1988. Ophelia Powell-Malone was the first African-American to receive a baccalaureate degree from Texas Technological College in 1964.

Mentor Each Student to Achieve

I served as a mentor for elementary students in the Lubbock Independent School District-Mentor Each Student to Achieve (MESA) program. This one on one youth voluntary program was designed to motivate and excite kids about learning through fun and interactive activities.

McNair Scholar Program

I have mentored students in the McNair Scholar Program which prepares low-income, first generation and minority undergraduates for graduate study at the doctoral level. The McNair Scholars Program is named after Dr. Ronald E. McNair, a remarkable American who was extremely successful in every aspect of his life. The long-term mission of the McNair Scholars Program is to increase the number of individuals from underrepresented groups to receive doctoral degrees.

Related Publications (Partial List only)

Here is a partial list of publications that are related to the professional enrichment and K-12 outreach programs that I have been involved in. (More publications will be reported soon!)

Padhu's Home Page| Department of Mathematical Sciences | College of Science | GMU

Contact : Science and Technology 1, Room 222(b), Fairfax, VA 22030