Love of Math

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Dr. Heather Finotti
 Founder  & Instructor

Background

    Heather earned a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004, specializing in applied mathematics (partial differential equations and applications to environmental issues, in particular).  Ranked one of the top 15 programs for a graduate degree in Mathematics in the world, she studied with and was mentored by mathematicians that are luminaries in their fields, including winners of the Abel Prize and the MacArther Genius Award.  She also had the opportunity to teach under and be mentored by leaders in Math Education,  like Uri Triesman and Michael Starbird, and engaged in pedagogical training through programs like the  UT Austin Supplemental Instruction Program and national Math Education Conferences.  These experiences bring together in her the combination of deep and extensive knowledge of the subject with a deep appreciation of and training in the craft of effective pedagogy.

She has taught students of all ages and stages in life, at every level of mathematical development in a variety of contexts. She started tutoring as a high school student and continued into college, began teaching professionally as an undergraduate instructor for Indiana University in 1995, taught as a teaching assistant and then primary instructor as a graduate student at the University of Texas Austin and in a few of the summers worked in the student help center at Austin Community College, led an innovative math circle program at Texas, and after finishing her PhD, taught undergraduate and graduate level courses for the Ohio State University and the University of Tennessee as a postdoctoral research professor.  Other experiences include  teaching a couple of individualized courses for a very small high school in Austin, and offering math anxiety support privately.

    She had a son in 2008 and left academia to stay home for several years (and get him off to a great start in math, of course!).  In 2012 once he began to attend school, she lectured at UT and shortly after began to teach for Art of Problem Solving.  This began her professional work with young children.  From 2017-2020 she ran a math circle at a local private STEM Academy.  A few years prior to the pandemic, she began receiving requests to work  privately with a few mathematically accelerated children,  and those who haven't already graduated high school she continues to work with today. She also began homeschooling her son in 2020, and  they continue homeschooling today.  Gratefully, her son has maxed out the LoM class offerings as a high school junior, and has moved on to take more math courses beyond those that we offer as a senior.  

For further inquiry, please contact us. 
  








Philosophy

  Heather's experiences have shown her that math does not have to be scary or miserable to learn -- in fact, she's found that once students find their footing the beauty and joy in learning the subject reveals itself reliably. But "dumbing it down", reducing it to memorization, and other oft tried means of making math easier for students generally ends up increasing a student's anxiety level and dislike of the subject, in addition to giving the student a quite poor foundation in the subject. If you remove the meaning, how can it be interesting or useful?  Without understanding, all we have to rely on is memorization -- so what happens if we forget something?  This is very anxiety inducing for many people.   Moreover,  "dumbing it down" sends a not-so-subtle message that the full depth of the subject is unattainable by the student. Research tells us this leads to students even more deeply believing they are incapable, and then inevitably falling far short of their true potential.  

  Instead, she's seen that we need to help students find their way to true understanding.  She has seen that teaching from this perspective, honoring the innate capacity each human has to learn while meeting them where they currently are, providing a setting for learning where mistakes are embraced as teachers, there is room for creativity and flexibility in problem solving, compassion and encouragement are the norm, and high expectations are held with adequate support to meet them, can work wonders for a student's progress and set a foundation for future learning that is solid and sure.  

    Her priority is always first and foremost to guide her students to build comfort, self-confidence,  and proficiency in the subject matter, without creating unnecessary stress or anxiety in the process.  Her motto: "Never underestimate the power of understanding simple things deeply."

Dr. Ashley Ahlin
 Instructor

Background

Ashley (Reiter) Ahlin has loved math since childhood, particularly finding connections between different areas of math, and finding ways to play with mathematical ideas. She completed her Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Chicago in 2002. Her research was in the area of geometry group theory, which seeks to understand different geometries from the perspective of symmetries and depends upon the connections between different areas of mathematics. While in high school, she wrote her first mathematical research paper on fractals found in generalizations in Pascal’s triangle, connecting number theory and fractal geometry. Based on this research, she placed first in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (now the Regeneron Science Talent Search). She also placed third at National MathCounts, and first in the Special Topic oral competition, in which students explain their solutions to a set of related problems to a panel of judges; this affirmed her interest in communicating mathematics. She was also a member of the US Chemistry Olympiad team and earned a bronze medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad. 


She has always found teaching mathematics to be the most fun way to experience it; during a hiatus from her graduate studies, she taught for two years at a state-wide residential magnet school for math and science. In that context, she relished the opportunity to challenge strong students with mathematics which is not usually offered to high school students, including Linear Algebra and Group theory. She has also enjoyed working with students for whom math is not a top interest, including teaching the math course for non-STEM majors at University of Chicago (which showed the connections between geometry and number theory found in algebraic groups), and assisting faculty members who were writing the textbook for the course. Later, she taught the statistics course for non-STEM majors at Vanderbilt University and worked to connect them to the beauty and value of mathematical and statistical thinking.


Since 2004 she has focused on raising her four children, all math-philes, but with varied interests and personalities, who broaden her view of how students approach mathematics. Their schooling has varied but included all the elementary through middle school math instruction for two, and a few years of full-time homeschooling for another. Ashley also began teaching for the Art of Problem Solving in 2004 and has continued steadily since; she has focused on the “outside-the-curriculum” courses including number theory, combinatorics, and contest preparation courses. She’s also been a guest instructor in both Math WOOT and Chem WOOT. 


As her children began elementary school, she started a math circle, hosted math nights and a Julia Robinson Math Festival at local schools. She has coached the local MathCounts team for more than a decade, and later began organizing summer math camps at Michigan State University, where she is employed part-time in the mathematics department. In this context, she has built her library of extra-curricular math puzzles and games. Attending national math circles to learn from other circle leaders and math enrichment luminaries has been a highlight! 


Along the way, she has enjoyed connecting with students with very strong interests in math by teaching at Epsilon Camp and Campersand, and offering online seminars for the Davidson Institute, among others.

  

Philosophy

The vast majority of students experience only the fairly narrow set of topics which have formed the backbone of the school math curriculum, through algebra, geometry, and calculus. Much of the fascinating world of mathematics lies just “off the beaten path” and is readily accessible to young students, although it’s rarely offered to them. Ashley makes it a priority to expose students to mathematics which broadens their understanding of what mathematics is all about.


Her own enjoyment of mathematics is highest when she can see the connections between different fields of mathematics (e.g., between algebra and geometry) or the common threads between very different problems. (E.g., the connection between the Towers of Hanoi puzzle and the Sierpinski triangle!). This is the type of connection which also shows the wonder and beauty of mathematics

Finally, Ashley is convinced that mathematics is best enjoyed when playing with it, which often means taking chances, exploring tangents, and immersing yourself in examples, and often results in seeing the same ideas pop up in unexpected settings. 

One of her highest accolades came from her then three-year-old daughter, who said, “I always wanted to have a mom who was either a doctor or a mathematician, because if she was a doctor, I wouldn’t have to go to the doctor, and if she’s a mathematician, then she can cut fun things out of paper.” Perhaps mathematicians are not often characterized by their ability to cut fun things out of paper—but if you’re skeptical, check out the Fold and Cut Theorem.





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