In the Summer of 2011, I was awarded the Quaker Hill Grant to fund creation of a curriculum for our best and brightest 6th grade math students. At our school, Advanced math classes do not begin until 7th grade. Still, there are students in 6th grade that need a little bit more challenge than what a standard math curriculum can provide them. This curriculum was intended to be a self-guided independent study for talented and gifted 6th grade math students that they could pursue alongside their regular math lessons, curriculum, and homework. While designed for 6th graders, this work is appropriate for talented middle schoolers in any Middle grade (5-8).
USN has agreed to make this Challenge Curriculum available for anyone to use. You can download each chapter below by clicking on the name. Please read these guidelines/requests before you download these files:
1. Please do not share the file you download. Not through email, USB drive, the Cloud, etc. If you wish to share these files with someone, please direct that person to this webpage so he can access the files himself.
2. Please do not alter these files except for your own personal use in a classroom/home school/tutorial setting.
3. If you are a USN student/family not yet in 6th grade please do not access these files. They are intended to be part of the 6th grade experience at USN. If you are in 6th grade, please speak to your teacher if you wish to pursue these files as a supplement to your math course. If you are past 6th grade and did not have a chance to pursue these studies in 6th grade, please speak to your current teacher about your chance to study this material.
4. All rights reserved by the author and USN.
Unit 1 Number Theory Throughout History
Unit 3 Architecture in Mathematics
Supplement 1: Tutorial on Geometer’s Sketchpad (for use in Unit 4)
Unit 4 Plane Geometry (NOTE: This curriculum could be modified to work with GeoGebra instead of Sketchpad. GeoGebra is a free add-on to Google’s Chrome internet browser).
Unit 6 Geometric Constructions (Note: You will also need a MIRA to complete this study)
Supplement 2: Tutorial on Fathom (for use in Unit 7)
Unit 7 Data Analysis (Note: You will also need a Texas Instruments 83- or 84- series calculator to complete this study)
ANSWER KEYS:
If you are a teacher/parent and would like to see some *excellent* student work samples (which basically function as an answer key in many cases), here they are.
UNIT 1: Challenge1Key
UNIT 2: Challenge2Key
UNIT 3: Chapter3Key
UNIT 5: challenge5Key
UNIT 6: Challehge6Key
UNIT 7: Unit7Key
