 Hello, my name is Ann Payalletti. I teach at Clearview Regional High School in South Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. This is my fourth year at Park City Math Institute and the teacher leadership program and my first year on staff in the program. I wanna talk to you about the conflict that PCMI stirs deep within my teacher's soul and share it with you with what I'm doing to address it. The solution is quite simple. A new math elective for high schoolers. It's gonna be great and you're invited to join us. Hear me out. At PCMI, we get to experience mathematics in a way that is totally different than what my students get to experience. We get to play, explore and create mathematics here and we don't do this alone. We do this together as friends. My students don't get to do that. They don't get to play or explore. To do math well is to be fast and procedurally efficient. We are also on a really tight calendar with a state test at the end of the year. There is no wiggle room in the curriculum for play. So here it is, the new math research course. Finally, high school students will get to explore, question, conjecture, fail and try again. Souls will be shaken up and not just from frustration but from seeing the beauty revealed in mathematics. During the fall, we will explore a variety of topics, encryption and decoding, modular arithmetic. We will play with ratios of consecutive Binochi numbers and let them lead us to the golden ratio. Our minds will explore higher dimensions and see how naturally they flow from the three dimensions we usually see. Topology, combinatorics, graph theory. How about music, James? The possibilities are endless. This will be the fun part. Then during the spring semester, students will deep dive into a topic of their choice. This will be the hard part but also the most rewarding. They will get stuck quickly. Now what will they do? Something they've never done before. Dig deep. They're gonna document their discoveries and open their curiosity and follow it. Conjecture, test and prove. Begin to experience what it is like to think like a mathematician, work like a mathematician, feel like a mathematician. At the end of the year, each student will have a portfolio of work. Their creation of mathematics that documents their journey and discoveries. Students will showcase their work in front of an audience. What kind of students are in this course? Out of the box thinkers who can see things differently. Future STEM majors looking to build their math portfolios. Mathematical daydreamers, curious students. Mathematical artists who need time to work out their ideas. Students like this young man who invited me to his chess club just so he could beat me in chess. And he did. His talent goes beyond the traditional math curriculum. He deserves an introduction to the awe-inspiring math that we get to experience here. The students lined up for this course have a lot of personality and I expect magic to happen when they are together doing math. But there's one missing piece and that's where you come in. In the fall, you could compose a problem to the class. This could be done in person if you're in the Philadelphia area or by video conference if you are not. It's a simple way to get involved. Or maybe you're looking for ways that by participating in our work can help you build concrete examples of broader impact for your National Science Foundation grants. You could affect young mathematicians by mentoring a student. This is not the same as taking on another advisee. Rather just guiding a high schooler through their research in the spring semester. This could be you or Jaiadab. Listening, questioning, and giving a little direction. Students who check in with their mentors every week or two throughout the spring will do better. If the mentor role won't work for you personally, then maybe you know of a grad student like John Urschel who might be a good fit or maybe you are a grad student. This could be a great opportunity for a grad student who's thinking about a career in math education. Here's one last thought. We all have our story about how we came to love math. When was it when you first fell in love with math? What was it that grabbed your heart? Now think back, who was it that first recognized your mathematical talent? We all have a who. The people who first introduced us to new mathematical worlds. My original who are Glenn Stevens and Al Quoco who began shaping me over 15 years ago in Boston and then came a bunch more. Imagine influencing a younger mathematician by mentoring him or her. Seeing something exciting in their ideas. Inspiring them into new beautiful and enriching mathematical paths. Are you interested in joining us? Please come see me if you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.