Outreach

Fostering a love of mathematical thinking

We educate young people through a number of outreach programs designed to awaken their interest in the mathematical sciences. We have programs designed for K-12 students, as well as research opportunities for undergraduates.

Bloomington Math Circle

We operate the Bloomington Math Circle for area schoolchildren who enjoy mathematics, introducing them to fun math topics not typically taught in elementary and middle schools. We talk about interesting topics in a way that makes the concepts understandable to young people: symbolic logic, modular arithmetic, regular polyhedra, inequalities, the fourth dimension, approximating square roots, and different sizes of infinity. The circle runs for nine weeks each semester and meets one day a week for about an hour. 

 

The 2025 Math Circle will have two groups running, one for students 3rd through 6th grade and one for preK through 2nd grade.  The links to sign up for these groups is below.

3rd-6th Grade - https://forms.gle/9S4vHdVT3AFCmtky5

preK-2nd Grade - https://forms.gle/9RuXGwrmA9Lp559x9

Science Fest

Our department participates in Science Fest, the annual day of hands-on educational science fun at Indiana University Bloomington. 

Visit the Science Fest website

American Mathematics Competition exams

Each year, we host the American Mathematics Competition exams (AMC).

Registration for the AMC10A can be found here (LINK) and the registration for the AMC12A can be found here (LINK).

Both AMC 10A and 12A will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 5 in RH100 from 7pm to 8:15pm

We will also host  the AMC 8 Math Olympiad in January 2026. All information will be posted here in December 2025

 

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

For over four decades, our Mathematics department has offered experiences in Mathematics research to students from all over the country. During the summer, a select group of undergraduates participate in research projects with individual faculty mentors on a wide variety of topics. The National Science Foundation supports the program via a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant.

Learn about REU