Staff and Contact Info

For more information, please email Linda Green (linda.green (at) unc (dot) edu).

 

Lead Teachers

Moebius Noodles: Maria Droujkova and Dmitri Droujkov

Beginners Group: Maria Droujkova and Dmitri Droujkov

Elementary Group: Linda Green and Mary Chrestenson-Becker

Intermediate Group: Linda Green and Mary Chrestenson-Becker

Advanced Group: Wesley Hamilton and Paul Kruse

 

About the Staff

Linda Green has been a Teaching Faculty Member in the Math Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since Fall 2013. Before moving back home to North Carolina, she taught at Dominican University of California and directed the Marin Math Circle. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in the field of topology and geometry.

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Droujkova focuses her research and development efforts on learning communities, informal education, online education, advanced mathematics for young children, and game design. She holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from NCSU, and M.S. in Mathematics from Tulane. Maria is the founding director of Natural Math, an educational design, consulting, and publishing company. Her approach to teaching focuses on the easy complexity (such as calculus for five-year-olds), openness, and kindness. She co-authored Moebius Noodles and Avoid Hard Work, popular books with innovative math activities for parents, teachers, and math circle leaders.

My name is Dmitri Droujkov. I have M.S. in Mathematics. I work in software design and development, in particular educational software and games. I went to a math circle as a child. Back then, I loved figuring out patterns, finding interesting solutions, and sharing mathematics with others. Solutions are interesting when they are simple, elegant, unexpected, integrate different ideas, and illuminate the big picture. I’d spend a large part of my youth studying mathematics. Now I work with systems that support mathematics education.

The big problem in education is that each new generation has to start learning from scratch, while the total knowledge of the humanity keeps expanding. That suggests the need for constant re-inventing and optimization of our education systems. The company and community I co-founded, Natural Math, seeks to address this problem in the context of learning mathematics.