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.
Outreach
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 Fall 2026-Spring 2027 Math Sprouts & Math Circle will have two groups running, one for students preK through 2nd grade and one for 3rd through 6th grade. The links to sign up for these groups is below:
preK-2nd Grade - https://forms.gle/Xn5FEGiiMi7WKbRR8
3rd-6th Grade - https://forms.gle/iyfHE4xf61kJzJ6RA
Science Fest
Our department participates in Science Fest, the annual day of hands-on educational science fun at Indiana University Bloomington.
American Mathematics Competition exams
Each year, we host the American Mathematics Competition exams (AMC).
Registration for the AMC8 can be found here (LINK).
We will host AMC10/12B on November 13, 2026, and AMC8 in January 2027, exact times and rooms TBA.
Registration link for 10B:
https://maa.edvistas.com/datamate/testRegister.aspx?id=659cceec-e3c9-4e09-a923-00fa52c87b0f
Registration link for 12B:
https://maa.edvistas.com/datamate/testRegister.aspx?id=c0bca62a-93fe-4e31-8233-48be14b19986
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.
The College of Arts