CAMPUS CURRENT
Are You Smarter Than a Third Grader Who’s Been Mentored by a Mudder?
Sure there was lots of giggling and squirming. But there was also plenty of curiosity among the youngsters who visited campus this spring at the invitation of two Mudders. Nate Pinsky ’13 and Elly Schofield ’13 taught math to 23
third graders from Chaparral Elementary School in Claremont for several weeks this spring, then led them on a tour of the Harvey Mudd College campus in May. “I think exploring what it’s like to be a teacher in a classroom
is really valuable,” said Schofield of her experience. “It is really amazing to see the look on kids’ faces when they get a concept. It is very rewarding.” Pinsky and Schofield decided to design an independent study
project that addressed the need to improve mathematics literacy of elementary school students. With the help of advisor and mathematics Professor Michael Orrison, Pinsky and Schofield teamed up to develop five interactive lessons of educationally enriching and fun activities to get third graders excited about learning math. “Since I’ve gone to Mudd, I’ve found myself more and more
interested in elementary math education,” said Pinsky. During their first year at HMC, both students became interested in math education while working at Homework Hotline, a call-in tutoring service that helps elementary and middle school stu- dents with math and science homework.
Chemists Hear About HMC Student Research Twenty-five Harvey Mudd College students presented the re- sults of their research at the 241st American Chemical Society National Meeting in Anaheim, Calif., March 27–31. Three students gave oral presentations: Brette Chapin ’11 spoke on “Asymmetric hydroamination of aminoallenes catalyzed by tita- nium and tantalum complexes of chiral sulfonamide-alcohols;” Kanny Wan ’11 spoke on “Concise, biomimetic syntheses of natural furanyl terpenoids;” and Michelle Hansen ’11 spoke on “Catalytic asymmetric hydroamination with tantalum complexes of chiral amino alcohols.” In addition, Adam Brown ’13, Arthur Vasek ’11, Cassie
George ’11, Daniel O’Neil ’11, Hayden Hatch ’12, Ha Seong Kim ’11, Heidi Linder ’11, Jessie Roy ’11, John Cvit- kovic ’11, John Robinson ’12, Karen Heinselman ’13, Kristine
Elly Schofield ’13 and Nate Pinsky ’13 share their enthusiasm for science and math.
This May, to encourage their interest in science, math and engineering, Chaparral third graders toured the HMC campus led by Pinsky, Schofield and other HMC students. The third graders were able to participate in a hands-on experiment in the chemistry lab and visit the rocket and computer science labs. Pinsky and Schofield hope to expand their project with elemen- tary school students in the coming years.
Student News
Fong ’11, Laura Collins ’11, Laura Poindexter ’11, Malous Kossarian ’12, Mary Van Vleet ’12, Millie Fung ’11, Nagiko Hara ’12, Thomas Aldrich ’12, Thomas Avila ’11, Veerasak “Jeep” Srisuknimit ’12, and Zara Seibel ’11 presented posters of their work in fields as far-flung as characterization of green surfactants, drug discovery and new materials for solar energy conversion. Alumni co-authors included Caitlin Olmsted ’10, Mark Cyffka ’10, Chiara Giammanco ’10, Nancy Eisenmenger ’09 and Eric Nacsa ’10. The American Chemical Society is the world’s largest sci- entific society with over 165,000 members. Roughly 14,000 scientists attended the conference to make 9,000 presentations in hundreds of half-day oral sessions and nearly 100 poster sessions.
14 Har vey Mudd College SUMMER 2011
CHRISTINE VASQUEZ
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