Applied Math Program
Engage your students as doers and creators of mathematics in semester-long, data-driven applied mathematics investigations that support core grade-level learning.
AMP investigations focus on:
- Grade 7: Heat Islands in My Community
- Grade 8: Epidemiology in my Community
- Grade 9: Aerospace Endeavors of South LA engineers
Click here for a sample activity from the Grade 9 investigation!
Implement as an:
- Elective Course
- After School Enrichment
- STEM Magnet PBL
- Exploratory Math Labs
incorporated into
core mathematics courses
In AMP, your students will investigate mathematics relevant to their community on small research teams under your mentorship. In the curriculum, they’ll interact with videos and vignettes in which a diverse group of STEM professionals share their personal STEM journey. AMP provides “windows and mirrors” that help your students view mathematics as a socially useful endeavor in which their whole person can engage. Authored by UCLA Mathematics, LA industry partners, and The Curtis Center to rehumanize mathematics for secondary students, AMP is a Bill & Melinda Gates Grand Challenge for U.S. Education awardee.
AMP INTEREST FORM
Summer 2024 AMP Camp
Learn how to teach the AMP Heat Islands investigation. In this investigation, students use environmental sensors to collect temperature data and apply grade-level statistics to identify heat islands in their community and study what can be done about them.
Six day training @ UCLA: July 24-26 + 29 – 31, 2024
Teacher training provided at no cost, thanks to a Nicholas Endowment grant! Costs for classroom materials to implement are outlined here.
Registration is now closed. Reach out to curtiscenter@math.ucla.edu for future AMP dates.
In the News
Testimonials
AMP has been my favorite class. I love doing anything physical.
–
Ethan Arriola, AMP student at William Jefferson Clinton Middle School
I really love how you’re actually giving us physical materials to work with, and not [materials] from a digital notebook…Also, I love how you guys are giving us websites like Google Earth and Desmos.
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Jeidi Son, AMP student at William Jefferson Clinton Middle School
This [program] was something that speaks to our heart…We don’t want [the students] to feel like it is only the top players who do these [type of activities], people who have more resources, but that everyone can do this.
–
Dynamite Obinna, Engineer at Space X
Every single student is engaged. They’re having conversations amongst themselves. When I ask what’s going on, they are able to explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. There are some challenges, but I think this is the way to go. We don’t remediate our students. We challenge them.
If AMP can inform pedagogy in my school then I know I will not be informing just current students but future students for years to come.
–
Travis Holden, Principal at Barack Obama Blobal Preparation Academy
I have to be well planned. I have to be highly organized. I have to be ready…Doing all these activities in my classroom with 30 kids is music to ears when I just get to watch them do all the work. The work that I do happens behind the scenes. When the bell rings, they do all the work. They’re struggling. They’re in cognitive mode. They’re sharing different ideas. They’re trying to figure out their differences. It’s all music to my ears.
–
Julie Resurreccion, AMP Teacher at William Jefferson Clinton Middle School
As part of our trainings, we had the UCLA undergraduates working alongside the teachers. We have found that to be very impactful for both the teachers and the mentors. They all get a chance to learn a little bit from one another.
–
Julian Rojas, The Curtis Center Secondary Mathematics Specialist
AMP has created a program that is centered around these lives and these kids, their experiences. All these activities are relatable because we are actually collecting data from their schools. We are looking at the temperatures from their neighborhoods, and we are even looking at their neighborhoods through Google Earth. The math we are doing is relatable because they are personally connected to the numbers and the analysis, and I think this is how we grasp their interest and change their mindset.
–
Lizbeth Arias, AMP Undergraduate Mentor
It is our job as undergraduate mentors and also as teachers, to try and push them [the students] in the right direction, ask them guiding questions, but to let them struggle because it is supposed to be hard. It is mathematics they haven’t seen before. That struggle in mathematics, learning from your mistakes and growing, that’s the part that really counts. It’s more about the thinking and the process behind it.
–
Ruben Rodriguez, AMP Undergraduate Mentor
In Collaboration
22-23 Yearbook
Grade 7 students work together to calibrate an environmental sensor as part of the Heat Islands Investigation. Students use several of these sensors to collect data over a three week period to collect and share temperature data for different surface materials found in their community.
During AMP professional development, UCLA mentors and Clinton Middle School teacher, Julie Resurrecíon, learn to collect data for the Grade 7 Heat Absorption and Emission Lab. In this lab, participants gather information that helps them think about why some LA communities endure more heat than others.
During AMP professional development,UCLA mentors and teachers learn to describe the spread of COVID-19 using a modified SIR (susceptible-infectious-recovered) model as part of the Grade 8 Investigation.
Students from Western Ave T.E.C.H.Magnet School present to UCLA’s Dean of Physical Sciences, Miguel García-Garibay, at the 2023 AMP Community Showcase at Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy.
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