The Oracle: What is Intro to Proofs, and how far into planning it are you?

Daniel Hahn: Intro to Proofs is a senior-level math elective. Three quarters of the class are going to cover the ideas of proof and developing arguments and logic. And then the last quarter will be some calculus review and learning some Multivariable Calculus topics. Right now, we’re in the very early stages of just laying out pacing and the topics that we want to cover. We’ve established the textbooks, so we do have an outline of what we’re going to cover, but in terms of how we do it, and the classroom activities and stuff, that’s still to be determined.

TO: Why is Intro to Proofs only offered to seniors?

DH: We just don’t want to be in a situation where people are taking this class as 11th-graders or 10th-graders, and then it just starts the whole process up again, where we need to come up with more classes. I think the math offerings are robust enough for people to fill up their schedule for four years. This is true for over 90% of our students with AP Statistics and Applied Math Honors and now Intro to Proofs. So we have the four-class sequence plus three electives. I don’t want to create a situation where people are just rushing through for the sake of rushing through.

TO: How might Intro to Proofs impact student math course selection?

DH: There is the element where we do need to balance the wishes and the wants for different groups of people. I think there is a need for another math course, because we have a substantial number of students that are done with AP Calculus BC and that are left to their own devices in terms of finding another math class. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t do away with the risk of having people feel pressure to do more math classes to keep up with other people. Competition is a real thing.

TO: How does Intro to Proofs’ difficulty compare to other math classes?

DH: There are students that do really well in algebra one, (but) then they struggle in geometry, and there are students that struggle with algebra (but) then they do really well in geometry, because (the two concepts are) different. There are different fields of math. And so overall, just roughly the difficulty should be about the same, maybe compared to Analysis Honors. I’ve heard people say that Analysis H is a harder class than BC Calculus, and that’s because in Analysis, we. were able to push the limits a little bit and tailor it to Gunn students, whereas BC Calculus is a nationally standardized curriculum. And so when, generally, when people have gone through Algebra 2/Trig H and Analysis H and have really grown and made themselves really strong in math, then they get to calculus, it actually feels a little bit like a pressure relief. Proofs, we’re not sure. I think it’s maybe a little bit tougher than calculus. That would just be my guess. But the thing that’s going to make it challenging is the fact that it’s a different way of thinking. Multivariable Calculus, by comparison, is just adding on to regular calculus and thinking the same way.