Applied Mathematics Program
Engage your students as doers and creators of mathematics in data-driven applied mathematics investigations that support core grade-level learning.
Rehumanize Mathematics For Your Students
AMP investigations focus on:
- Grade 7: Math in the Environment
- Grade 8: Math in Epidemiology
- Algebra 1: Math in Aerospace
Click HERE for a sample activity from the Algebra 1 investigation!
Implement AMP as:
- an elective course
- high quality instructional materials for a math support class
- after school enrichment
- a STEM magnet PBL
- exploratory math labs
in core math class
Overview
Nationwide, students are rarely asked to be doers and creators of mathematics (Stigler, 1999; Schmidt et al., 2022); rarely shown that mathematics addresses issues relevant to them and their community (Schmidt et al., 2022) and; rarely exposed to the diversity of today’s mathematical community (Hobson, 2017; Irvine, 2020).
These scarcities of higher order thinking, intellectual need (Harel, 2007), and mirrors (Style, 1988; Goffney, Gutiérrez, Boston, 2018) in our mathematics classrooms undermine student sense of belonging and motivation in mathematics, which ultimately negatively impacts student mathematical learning.
The Applied Mathematics Program is a community response to these challenges. It positions students as doers and creators of mathematics. Each investigation consists of 13 multi-day activities that tell a coherent story while engaging students in answering grade-level mathematical questions related to heat islands in their community (Grade 7), epidemiology (Grade 8), or current efforts of South LA aerospace engineers (Algebra I).
In AMP, your students will investigate currently relevant applications of mathematics 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.
American Institute of Research Study Results
Goal: Measure impact on student mathematical growth and sense of belonging
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Quasi-Experimental Match Comparison Design: each AMP student matched to a non-AMP student with similar baseline mathematics performance and same core mathematics instructor. Results pooled across 7th, 8th, and 9th grade participants.
92% of students surveyed
found AMP activities helpful for learning math
97% of students surveyed
found AMP activities helped to build a positive learning environment
14% reported increase
in how often teachers reported using instructional practices that emphasizes deep engagement with math content
Summer 2025 AMP Camp
Learn how to teach the AMP Math in Epidemiology investigation, where students use real Los Angeles data to explore diseases like measles and COVID-19. Students apply grade-level statistics to understand how diseases spread in their community and examine possible interventions.
Six day training @ UCLA: July 23 – 25 + 28 – 30, 2025
Training will be provided at NO COST to Southern California teachers, thanks to the generous funding of the Nicholas Endowment.
In the News
Testimonials
AMP has been my favorite class. I love doing anything physical.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Ruben Rodriguez, AMP Undergraduate Mentor
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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