BEAM Saturday Classes

Sign-up for BEAM’s Saturday Classes

Do you miss your friends from BEAM? Do you want to learn more engaging topics outside of school? Or do you just want to do something fun on the weekend? Participate in BEAM's Saturday classes!

Click here for Spring 2024 Registration

See below for course descriptions.

Schedule

You can choose if you’d like to take one or two classes! Office hours are optional.

10:00-10:30 Breakfast

10:30-12:00 Morning Classes - you are also welcome to work independently at this time.

12:00-1:00 Lunch - we’ll provide food!

1:00-2:30 Afternoon Classes - you are also welcome to work independently at this time.

2:30-4:00 Office Hours or Study Hall

Dates:

If you can’t attend one of these dates, that’s okay! Please let us know if you anticipate you’ll be absent for a class.

  • February 3, 10 (No classes during Midwinter Break)

  • March 2, 9, 16, 23 (No classes during Easter weekend)

  • April 6, 13, 20 (No classes the second weekend Spring Break)

  • May 4, 11

Photo Dec 21, 3 26 43 PM.jpg

Location

The program will be held in-person at the Professional Children’s School, 132 West 60th Street, New York, NY 10023.

classes

Morning Classes

Note: 9th graders do not have a morning class option this semester. If you’d like to come in the morning, feel free to bring independent work.

Algebra - 8th Graders

  • Class Description: Take a BEAM-ified Algebra class. These classes are split up into students who will be taking the Regents this year and those who are taking it another year. Whether you are taking Algebra now, have taken it in the past, or will take it in the future, this class is for you!

Combinatorics through Problem Solving - 11th, 12th Graders

  • Instructor: Jonathan 

  • Type of Class: Exploratory Math (our problem solving approach means you will be playing around, trying to find connections and patterns), AND Theoretical Math (we will prove some stuff).

  • Difficulty:  Moderate (you’ll need to think, but it will all connect.)

  • Class Description:  Each day you will work on solving some counting problems – in groups or individually, as you prefer (though groups can be more fun). We will use the results of your problem solving to establish rules, laws, formulas, and principles of combinatorics. You are at BEAM – so you have certainly worked on problem solving, and you have probably learned some combinatorics. But by combining the two, we make sense of the different ideas, we can see how they fit together, learn them better, and have fun doing it.

  • Sample Problems: How many distinct 5-flower bouquets are possible if we have unlimited red, yellow and white flowers to choose from? Laura’s pet bunny, Ghost, hops up a flight of 12 steps. Ghost hops up one or two steps at a time, and never hops down. How many ways can Ghost reach the top step?

  • You should take this class if: You enjoy discovering patterns, work well in teams, like trying out different approaches, enjoying counting problems, like figuring out new formulas and connections between formulas.

  • You shouldn't take this class if: You prefer applying formulas to deriving them, you don’t like working in groups, or if the description above does not interest you.

Infinity - 11th, 12th Graders

  • Instructor: Dan

  • Type of Class: Theoretical Math (we'll prove theorems)

  • Difficulty: Hard (be ready for a serious challenge)

  • Class Description: Infinitely is a mind-bending idea, but with math, we can understand it. We'll learn about different sizes of infinity, how you compare them, and how many infinities there are. Above all else, this class requires you to have flexible thinking: you have to be willing to think about things you can never see or even fully conceive of, but where you can still prove things about them. Even if you've taken infinity classes at BEAM, this will go beyond them.

  • You should take this class if: You like brain-bending ideas, are up for a challenge, and are OK working abstractly (i.e. not with numbers but with ideas).

  • You shouldn't take this class if: You want to work only with concrete problems/real-world examples.

SAT Prep - 10th Graders

  • Instructor: Study Smart

  • Class Description: Come take a professional SAT study course at BEAM! These classes can often be expensive, come join us for free.

  • You should take this class if: you’re interested in taking the SAT!

Afternoon Classes

Modular Arithmetic: Clocks, Doomsday, and More - 8th, 9th, 10th Graders

  • Instructor: Jonathan

  • Type of Class: Exploratory Math (we will look for patterns and play around with them.)

  • Difficulty: Moderate (you will need to think, but it will all connect.)

  • Class Description: Modular arithmetic: Five hours from 10:00 is 3:00 – when we “start over” at 12 – that’s modular arithmetic. If today is Wednesday, what day will it be 15 days from now? That’s also modular arithmetic. We will learn a bit about modular arithmetic, in general. And then each lesson will look at a different aspect or application.

  • Highlight: we will take two lessons and learn about Doomsday – a way of quickly calculating on what day of the week any date from history fell. What day of the week you will turn 18? You will be able to answer.

  • You should take this class if: you are curious to think more deeply about arithmetic. You like thinking about applications of arithmetic.

  • You shouldn't take this class if: this doesn’t sound like fun. You do not enjoy arithmetic.

Introduction to Money and Investing - 8th, 9th, 10th Graders

  • Instructor: Ken

  • Type of class: Practical and Real world focused with some math included; no programming or heavy math required

  • Difficulty: Moderate

  • Class Description: In this class, we will discuss a number of basic principles of investing and how our amount of money can grow (or shrink sometimes!). We will discuss money, interest rates, and the magic (and sometimes the trouble!) of compounding. We will learn about the stock market, investing, and the random walk hypothesis. We'll also play some games that allow us to learn the principles of investing in a fun and hands-on way. Finally, we will talk about the types of jobs that folks do in the world of investment and that might be of interest for you down the road.

  • You should take this class if: You'd like to learn more about money and powerful and practical issues of investing, including a bit of the mathematics behind investing.

  • You shouldn't take this class if: You aren't interested in these topics, want a purely theoretical class, want to do a lot of programming.  

Python and Excel - 8th, 9th, 10th Graders

  • Instructor: Anthony

  • Type of class: Practical and applied math

  • Class Description: Learn the powerful tools of Python and Excel! More detailed description to come!

Get Ready for College Workshops - 12th Graders

  • Instructor: Hector

  • Class Description: Learn how to make your first year of college successful with Hector! These workshops will help prepare you and show you what to expect for college.

College Application Workshop - 11th Graders

  • Instructor: Betty

  • Class Description: Get a jump start on college application season! Work with BEAM staff to start looking at college application requirements, making a college list, and getting everything ready for application season to be as smooth as possible.

Office Hours and Study Hall

Join us at Saturday office hours 2:30-4:00 to do independent or group work. A great space to buckle down and get your homework done for the weekend!

————————————————————————————————————

Email Fiona at fiona@beammath.org if you have any questions!