MATH ENRICHMENT SERVICES
MOTIVATING BRILLIANCE
Challenging mathematics for intellectually gifted students
1200 Kensington Road, McLean, Virginia 22101
(703) 855-0948
Contact:
Vern Williams
vernwilliams47@gmail.com; vernwilliams@mathreasoning.com
2025 Summer Courses Registration is Now OPEN!
Registration for the Summer 2025 Course is now open. Classes will remain open until filled by qualified students.
A payment of $750 will reserve a space in the selected course. You will receive a full refund (less a $25 service charge) if it is requested at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the course. If a refund request is made after that time, a $50 service charge will apply.
You may switch sessions at any time if room permits. The above courses are for gifted students who seek and need serious mathematics enrichment. I can test and/or meet with prospective students to determine if the above courses are appropriate. Contact me with any questions.
MATH REASONING
This course is mainly for rising seventh and eighth graders who are able to grasp abstract and complicated mathematical concepts at a very fast pace. Younger students with exceptional mathematical abilities and backgrounds may enroll with special permission.
The material covered will include topics from number theory, Euclidian and non-Euclidian geometries, Picks Theorem, Herons Formula, Mathematical proof, transcendental real numbers such as “e” and “pi”, derivation and use of the square root algorithm, unitary divisors, permutations and combinations, derivation and use of summation formulas, and RSA coding. In addition, students will develop new techniques and shortcuts for solving both routine and difficult math problems taken from Mathcounts, AMC8, and other middle and high school contests.
Students who qualify for programs such as CTY (Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth) or EPGY (Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth) should have an excellent experience taking this course. An AMC 8 score of 15 or higher should also serve as an excellent predictor of success in the course.
If a student has not taken the AMC 8 contest (40 minutes for 25 problems, no calculator), previously given ones can be found on the Art of Problem-Solving website at: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/AMC_8_Problems_and_Solutions. Of course, if a student is a strong member of his/her school Mathcounts team, that indeed serves as an excellent predictor of success in the Math Reasoning course.
SESSION I ONLY
July 7 – July 18
9 AM – 12 Noon
Instructor:
Vern Williams
Class Size:
12-15 students
Place:
Meridian High School
121 Mustang Alley
Falls Church, VA 22043
$750.00
ADVANCED PROBLEM SOLVING
This course is mainly for rising eighth, ninth, and tenth graders who would like to engage in high-level problem-solving up to the USAMO level. Problems will be selected from a variety of sources and problem-solving techniques will be developed and applied. Other topics of interest, such as advanced number theory, combinatorics, and advanced topics from geometry will be discussed. The student should have the ability to reason abstractly and the desire to solve challenging problems in order to be successful in this course.
We are planning to have two levels of APS. Dr. Ryan Grove is scheduled to instruct the more experienced students. He currently teaches problem-solving versions of Calculus and Post Calculus courses as well as Physics at BASIS Independent Mclean.
Students who were very successful in the Math Reasoning course and/or advanced math courses from CTY (Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth) or Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) should be prepared for this course. Acceptance to programs such as MathPath as well as a score of 90 or above on the AMC10/12 also serve as excellent predictors of success in this course.
Even though we will have two levels of APS, the entry-level section will be quite rigorous. Students will be assigned to their respective sections based on their mathematics course backgrounds and problem-solving experience.
SESSION II ONLY
July 21 – August 1
1 PM – 4 PM
Instructors:
Vern Williams and Dr. Ryan Grove
Class Size:
We will have two levels and will assign a maximum of 12 students to each class.
Place:
Meridian High School
121 Mustang Alley
Falls Church, VA 22043
$750
ABOUT MATH ENRICHMENT SERVICES
QUALITY MATH ENRICHMENT
Math Enrichment Services was formed in February of 2006 in order to fill the need for quality math enrichment for gifted upper elementary and middle school students in the metropolitan Washington DC area. In addition to summer courses, we offer mentoring/tutoring for individual students and small groups on a limited basis throughout the school year. We also offer consulting services to individual schools, school systems, and institutions engaged in educational research. All courses are designed by Vern Williams and taught by Vern Williams or other instructors with extensive math backgrounds with the assistance of high school and college students who not only possess and demonstrate mathematical brilliance but are also able to motivate other students to reach their highest intellectual potential.
Other instructors have included Michael Auerbach (Thomas Jefferson High School), Jonathan Osborne (Thomas Jefferson High School), Eugene Huang (Longfellow Middle School), Peter Diao (Stanford), and Ryan Grove (BASIS Independent Mclean).
MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to help students appreciate the beauty and power of serious and challenging mathematics. We strive to make the student who never cared about math love it and for those who have always loved math to love it even more.
WHO IS VERN WILLIAMS?
THE MAN BEHIND THE PASSION
I had junior high school teachers who were intellectual and had a passion for their subjects.
Those great teachers helped me to develop a passion for learning and a respect for hard work that remain with me to this day.
At Paul Junior High School in Washington DC, intellectual excellence was the norm and it was celebrated. There was no cooperative learning, fake self-esteem, differentiated instruction, or ten-pound textbooks loaded with pictures and useless content. I decided to become a math teacher during my last year of junior high school because I knew that I wanted to return someday to continue the fun, learning, and celebration of excellence that I experienced in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades.
After attending the University of Maryland in the early nineteen seventies, I accepted a math teaching position at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. That experience helped to shape my attitude toward teaching math for the next thirty years. Teachers were forced to individualize 150 students using math booklets written for non-readers. Seventh and eighth-grade students were put into the same math classes and teachers were told that this program was “cutting edge”. I would hear that phrase many times over the next thirty years.
I quickly decided to find a school where I was allowed to “teach”. After seven great years teaching math at Ellen Glasgow School in Fairfax County, I transferred to H.W. Longfellow Middle School where I remained for over thirty years. At Longfellow, my accomplishments included:
• Developing and teaching the original Honors Math course to students in the Gifted Talented Center program.
• Pioneering a one-year course in Algebra/Geometry where students could receive two high school credits upon completion.
• Taught an enriched version of Honors Algebra 7.
• Taught a special proof-based Honors Geometry course enriched with AMC/AIME/USAMO level problem-solving.
After retiring from Fairfax County Public Schools in 2016, I taught at BASIS Independent Mclean for five years. I presently teach math at Nysmith School located in Herndon Virginia.
TEN MYTHS ABOUT MATH EDUCATION AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T BELIEVE THEM?
In association with two education advocacy organizations of parents, mathematicians, and K-12 educators (New York City HOLD and Mathematically Correct), my fellow associates and I prepared a document discussing Math Education myths and the reality behind each.
WE UNCOVER TRUTHS BEHIND BELIEFS, SUCH AS:
- Only what students discover for themselves is truly learned.
- Children develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and a greater sense of ownership when they are expected to invent and use their own methods for performing the basic arithmetical operations, rather than study, understand, and practice the standard algorithms.
- There are two separate and distinct ways to teach mathematics. The NCTM-backed approach deepens conceptual understanding through a problem-solving approach. The other teaches only arithmetic skills through drill and kill. Children don’t need to spend long hours practicing and reviewing basic arithmetical operations. It’s the concept that’s important.
- The math programs based on NCTM standards are better for children with learning disabilities than other approaches.
- Urban teachers like using math programs based on NCTM standards.
- “Calculator use has been shown to enhance cognitive gains in areas that include number sense, conceptual development, and visualization. Such gains can empower and motivate all teachers and students to engage in richer problem-solving activities.” (NCTM Position Statement)
- The reason other countries do better on international math tests like TIMSS and PISA is that those countries select test takers only from a group of the top performers.
- Math concepts are best understood and mastered when presented “in context”; in that way, the underlying math concept will follow automatically.
- NCTM math reform reflects the programs and practices in higher-performing nations.
- Research shows NCTM programs are effective.
Interested in learning more? You can read the full document by clicking on the link below.
MATH ENRICHMENT SERVICES
MOTIVATING BRILLIANCE
Challenging mathematics for intellectually gifted students
200 Kensington Road, McLean, Virginia 22101
(703) 855-0948
Contact:
Vern Williams
vernwilliams47@gmail.com; vernwilliams@mathreasoning.com
Last update: 02/02/2025
