Award-Winning UB Gifted Math Program Seeks Nominations for Its Fall 2004 Class

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Gifted Math Program is accepting nominations from schools and parents of outstanding sixth-grade mathematics students for its Fall 2004 class.

Three hundred nominees are expected to vie for 60 available positions. Participants will be selected after a three-hour battery of tests, including the math section of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), which will be administered in March.

Informational meetings for the families of nominated students and others interested in the program will be held at UB in February. For more information or to obtain a schedule of information meetings, call Anne Szczesny, program administrator at 645-2455, extension 1045, or visit the program's Web site at http://giftedmath.buffalo.edu.

The Gifted Math Program of the UB Graduate School of Education is in its 24th year of operation. It annually enrolls about 250 students from secondary schools in Erie, Niagara and Orleans counties.

A review group established by the National Science Teachers Association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of School Administrators recently recognized the program as one of 10 outstanding math-science activities nationwide.

Szcezsny explained that the six-year program is designed to challenge students with high levels of math ability. Its advanced math courses replace math classes in students' home schools.

Enrolled students in grades seven to 10 study an enriched and accelerated math program. Students in grades 11 and 12 take university-level courses in calculus and discrete math. Participants complete about four semesters of university-level mathematics as part of the program and may accumulate a total of 22 college credit hours.

Classes will meet Mondays and Wednesdays on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. Seventh and eighth graders attend two, 70-minute classes taught by different teachers from 3:30-6 p.m. and senior high-school students will attend two 70-minute classes taught by different teachers from 6:15-8:45 p.m.

Class sizes range from about 30 in grade seven to 25 in grade 12. Because some students begin their studies in the program a year early, a seventh-year course has been added in which students may study for mathematics competitions and review and intensify their calculus skills.

The program was founded by its current director Betty J. Krist, professor emerita in the mathematics department at Buffalo State College, and by Gerald R. Rising, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the UB Department of Learning and Instruction.