Need post-Calc math suggestion

[plansrme]

My daughter is in a STEM magnet and currently enrolled in Calc 2 and 3 via dual enrollment.  She plans to take AP Stats her senior year but will have exhausted the math available for her junior year.  Her school offers an "Advanced Math Topics" in which she will be the first ever (and probably only) student next year.  She expects that she will be able to tell them what she wants to study and/or do and that they will let her.  Soooo, any ideas?  The only other student who has ever exhausted the math in this program took differential equations at a local college, but she is going to have problems working that into her schedule.

 

Future engineer most likely.  If there is something available for pay (AoPS?), I am willing to pay if the school will let her do it.  If it could double as something really cool on her scholarship applications, that would be ideal.  We might have access to math profs at a local engineering college as well.

 

Nothing is too crazy to be a possibility, so any suggestions are welcome.

 

 

 

[Teachin'Mine]

Has she done discrete mathematics or linear algebra or number theory?  Just some thoughts.

[kiana]

I assume calc 3 is multivariable. Can she do distance learning to do a linear algebra/differential equations course?

 

EPGY offers linear algebra, differential equations, and partial differential equations.This sort of math is definitely relevant to engineering. Diffeq is required for most engineering degrees. They also offer several other advanced math topics more aimed at pure mathematics such as real analysis, modern algebra, and complex analysis. These would be very proofy classes, so if she enjoys proofs they might float her boat as well.

 

 

[plansrme]

Has she done discrete mathematics or linear algebra or number theory?  Just some thoughts.

 

Pretty sure she has not; I will check.  Thanks!

 

I assume calc 3 is multivariable. Can she do distance learning to do a linear algebra/differential equations course?

 

EPGY offers linear algebra, differential equations, and partial differential equations.This sort of math is definitely relevant to engineering. Diffeq is required for most engineering degrees. They also offer several other advanced math topics more aimed at pure mathematics such as real analysis, modern algebra, and complex analysis. These would be very proofy classes, so if she enjoys proofs they might float her boat as well.

 

I wouldn't have thought of EPGY; I will have her check it out.  Thanks.  And I think Calc 3 is multivariable, not that I have any idea what that means (I am pretty sure Calc had not been invented when i was in high school).

[regentrude]

 (I am pretty sure Calc had not been invented when i was in high school).

 

That makes you quite possibly the oldest person on these boards... 300+ years, wow :D

 

[Cosmos]

She could browse the catalog at any local college (or a non-local one, for that matter) to get ideas. Reading the course descriptions and checking the prerequisites will give her an idea of what interests her and would be accessible.

[plansrme]

That makes you quite possibly the oldest person on these boards... 300+ years, wow :D

 

That was a joke. Just so we are clear--I am well aware that calculus was not invented in the 80s. The 1980s anyway.

[Angie in VA]

Ask 8 and Kathy in Richmond and all the folks here. 

[regentrude]

That was a joke. Just so we are clear--I am well aware that calculus was not invented in the 80s. The 1980s anyway.

 

I know... just could not resist. It was a joke, too :-)

 

[bettyandbob]

linear algebra/differential equations.

[8filltheheart]

If she could take a class at the local university, that is the way I would go.   My ds's sequence after multivariable cal is diffEQ1, linear alg, and diffEQ2.   Depending on the engineering field, though, all those classes won't be required.   My dh and oldest ds are both chemEs and they stopped after diffEQ1.   Electrical engineers, otoh, might want to take applied matrix theory (which is the alternative math for linear alg at one school ds has looked into) or theory of probability. 

 

She might want to look at some college websites and see what maths they require.

[mom31257]

I loved Linear Algebra. Life of Fred has a book out, so it might give her a taste of it. 

 

 

[NittanyJen]

That might have been a joke, but my mother said when she was in school the teachers were in an uproar because they couldn't teach the "new math". My mother was referring to algebra. It was considered "new".

That reminds me of my mother's experience teaching in the mid '50's. The daughter of a Bell Labs engineer, she began teaching her 5th graders experimental sciences. The principal called her down to the office and demanded, "If you teach them science in the 5th grade, WHAT will they learn in high school?"

 

Then Sputnik happened (grin).

[plansrme]

Okay, assuming that DE is possible, which is unlikely due to scheduling issues, the three options at the closest campus appear to be linear algebra, differential equations or discrete math.

 

Pros and cons of these?  How about ways to study them independently?  The DE she is in right now is not a scheduling problem because the class is beamed into her HS classroom; she does not go onto the college's campus to take it.  Going to campus for an additional math is going to be difficult but, maybe, not impossible.

[NittanyJen]

DH is a math professor, so I asked his advice.  His recommendation was Linear algebra before diffeq's.  He says if she goes to engineering she will eventually take both anyway, but he felt linear algebra first was the way he would advise.

 

 

[kiana]

Ask the school which one you should take first if it's possible to take them.

[bettyandbob]

I took linear algebra before differential equations. My university ordered the class selection that way.