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Our Story
The Cambridge Math Circle (CMC) is a 501(c)3 registered nonprofit. CMC was established in 2018 by math and physics PhD's (Mira Bernstein and Nataliya Yufa) with a combined 40 years of teaching experience at K-12, undergraduate and graduate levels, to give elementary and middle school students in Cambridge and surrounding towns a chance to experience deep, fascinating math and meet others who like solving puzzles and stretching their minds.
Cambridge Math Circle serves all students, with a special focus on those who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields.
What We Do
Our mission is to provide math enrichment to K-8 students from Cambridge and the Greater Boston area, with a focus on children commonly underrepresented in STEM: girls, Black and Latinx children, and those from low-income families. We build students' confidence and encourage them to enjoy solving challenging problems now, so they have the confidence and skills to pursue more challenging math in high school and college, and later enter STEM-related careers as adults. Our near-peer teachers, as well as guest instructors from different STEM fields, serve as role models to our students.
The CMC Approach
Cambridge Math Circle's approach to teaching math is child-focused and starts with the belief that math is fun, wonderous, and joyful. By extension, the math learning process should also be fun and joyful. We create a collaborative environment where all students experience complex mathematical concepts through games, puzzles, and building challenges. Students develop logic, creative problem-solving skills, and resilience when faced with challenging problems. We also explore how math is present in everyday life through activities that blend math with music, art, and other STEAM topics.
Types of Classes
CMC leads classes online (Preparatory Math classes using Beast Academy and Art of Problem Solving), as well as in-person Math Circle classes at our community venue (Harvard University), serving the greater Boston community. Families can register for classes by visiting our Programs page. CMC also partners with select Cambridge Public Schools to offer after-school programming.
Our Preparatory Math classes combine the best of the nationally recognized Beast Academy and Art of Problem Solving curricula with CMC's proven teaching approach. These classes teach topics students traditionally learn in school, but at a deeper level, and with the support of CMC's highly knowledgeable math instructors. Our goal is to strengthen students' mental math skills, improve their understanding of the school math curriculum (from both previous and future years), and learn to solve complex problems.
Our Math Circle classes complement the school curriculum—here, students learn to think like a mathematician, logician, scientist, or engineer. Students explore areas of math that are normally not part of the school curriculum until a college major in STEM: combinatorics, graph theory, logic and topology, to name a few. Classes consist of a building activity, followed by the main problem-solving session, followed by games.
For more details, or to register for classes, please visit our Programs page. Have questions? Email us at classes@cambridgemathcircle.org.