Spring 2004

ETHS students take mathematics to next level

By Katharine Duke

Mathematical equations covered the chalkboard, and yet, Associate Provost Stephen Fisher continued to write rapidly amid the appreciative murmurings and the soft laughter. When he finished, he turned and faced his students.

“Any questions?” he asked.

Stephen Fisher, associate provost and professor of mathematics, teaches part of the course Introduction to Analysis at Evanston Township High School.

photo by Mary Hanlon

Although Fisher had proven hundreds of theorems as a member of the mathematics department at Northwestern University, this experience was different. Facing him as he turned were 10 high school seniors and two high school math teachers.

This year, Fisher has solved more than one kind of math problem for Evanston Township High School.

Nine seniors had completed all of the math courses available to them at the high school, including two college-level math courses. In order to continue their study of mathematics, they would have had to drive over to Northwestern in the middle of their school day to take a course, said John Benson, a mathematics teacher at ETHS.

While one or two students traditionally come to North-western for a math class each year as part of a benefit Northwestern provides to ETHS students, never before did Benson have so many students who had completed the highest-level course available.

“Each year, a couple of students trek over to Northwestern and take whatever class happens to be offered at whatever time they can get there,” Benson said. “That is a really nice program, but to have this many kids disrupt their schedules didn’t make sense to me. The problem is that it requires two or three class periods because Northwestern’s classes meet on the hour and ours don’t. These kids have a full schedule, and it would have been very difficult for them all to do that.”

So last spring, Benson decided that it might be easier for a Northwestern professor to make the reverse commute. He approached the math department at Northwestern, but none of the professors could work it into their schedules. A math professor at the University of Chicago agreed to teach the class, but later backed out because it conflicted with his teaching schedule in Hyde Park. In the early fall after the school year had started, Fisher heard about the dilemma.

“Steve got wind of the fact that we had a rather serious problem that didn’t look like it was going to resolve itself,” Benson said. “I didn’t feel comfortable teaching the class, so my best bet was to teach it as an independent study. The kids would do the best they could, and I would supervise.”

Fisher called the next morning and offered to teach the fifth-period course, Introduc-tion to Analysis, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday if Benson and fellow teacher Isaac Greenspan could cover the other two days.

The arrangement has worked out well for both Fisher and Benson.

“This is material that I really enjoy teaching,” said Fisher who has committed to teaching through the school year. “I’ve always liked teaching, and I don’t teach as a regular part of my responsibilities any more because I have so many conflicts. With John to back me up and take the class on the days I can’t come, I don’t feel like I am short-changing anyone.”

Benson said that the students appreciate the sacrifice Fisher is making and the opportunity to study with him. “It’s pretty clear that he is a mathematician,” Benson said. “And the kids have never taken a class with a mathematician before.”

“It’s been a great opportunity to do some advanced math before I get to college that I would otherwise had to have gone to Northwestern for,” agreed senior Seth Flaxman. “I don’t think I would have had time to do that. There were a lot of other classes I wanted to take.”

Senior Jack Scheff also said he was grateful for the opportunity.

“I’m appreciating it more and more as the year goes on,” Scheff said. “And now, I’m really getting into it because it’s all about why theorems work. It’s not so much about problem solving as it is about proving statements.”

“It’s a college-level class, and he’s teaching it very much the way that it would be taught at a university,” Benson explained.