Career mathematician visits PHS
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
2 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Dr. Mel Currie calls his visits to Polson High School math classes “taking a peek under the hood of mathematics,” according to Polly Dupuis, mathematics teacher at PHS.
Currie, a career mathematician from the National Security Administration, made guest appearances in Dupuis’ classes on Jan. 18 and 19 as an outreach and to get more kids interested in math as a career.
“Mathematics is more than just a skill set; it’s an international culture ... a very active research discipline,” Currie explained, adding that students don’t always realize mathematicians have been working on some problems for centuries.
This is Currie’s second trip to Polson, and Dupuis said he expanded on problems she has kids working on as well as describing how math is used in his world. Currie also presented to the Mission Valley Math Circle, a gathering of K-12 teachers from area schools.
Dupuis met Currie and other NSA staff during a sabbatical in Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., and consequently wrote a grant to bring Currie and colleague Donald Calderon to the Flathead Reservation.
Currie described his visit as an outreach effort while Calderon concentrated on recruiting Salish Kootenai College students for the NSA.
Even the heavy snow didn’t dissuade the men from planning to send recruiters from NSA to the SKC Job Fair in February.
