The Programme

Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd. (hereafter referred to as EI) is the company in which I work as a math content developer. The vision of EI is to have a world in which all children learn with understanding. To realise this vision, EI builds products that focus on diagnostic assessments and personalised learning. One of the products is the Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing (ASSET) that uses multiple-choice questions to measure students' grasp of concepts and skills in the school syllabus.

The ASSET Summer Programme (ASP) is a three week long residential learning module, designed for children of grades 7 and 8. The programme has been designed by pedagogical experts at EI and students are selected for the programme based on their performance in the ASSET Talent Search examination - an annual international talent identification test. The philosophy of the ASP is to identify and nurture bright academic minds by bridging the gaps between school learning and practical skills. Children get to engage with material that pushes their thinking while learning with  faculty and peers who are as talented and passionate about knowledge as they are.

I was a teaching assistant for the course 'Mathematical Thinking' at ASP 2017 held at Manipal University in the month of May. The course instructor who I worked with was Mrs. Jayasree Subramanian. She has taught students at all levels - from middle school to undergraduate courses - for over 20 years. Her fascination with mathematics was infectious and she encouraged our students to  explore the nuances and find things out for themselves. She holds a postgraduate degree in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and, at this time of writing, is pursuing a Ph.D. program in math education at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.

The posts in the section share a few of the classroom activities that Jayasree Ma'am and I carried out with our 15 students over the course. Many of the underlying concepts and activities can be further explored by the reader on his/her own with the aid of the internet!

Next post: The Hat of a Mathematician

Class photo with my students and Jayasree Ma'am