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Hermione Granger got it right when, facing the potion-master's test, she said: "This isn't magic - it's logic - a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic; they'd be stuck here forever." - Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone
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WHY LOGIC?
Logic is fundamental to almost everything our students do.
- What they study. Computer science, mathematics, the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, the arts, medicine, law all require students to read, write, and think critically.
- What they believe. Advertisers, politicians, companies, and organizations, your friends, family, and experts in a field - all at some time want students to buy their products, vote for them, or support what they believe and want to do. Logic helps them spot the hype, the nonsense, who is wrong and who is right.
- How they think and communicate. Students use the language of logic to state observations, define concepts, and form theories. They use Logic to reach conclusions and solve problems all the time. They use logic to explain their thoughts to others.
| Quotes from students who have taken the course: |
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"Whether I am on a soccer field or at a robotics competition, I face a lot of situations where logic is necessary to make decisions."
"I have always loved puzzles and math and like to solve challenging problems."
"Math classes aren't the only classes that require logic; In AP United States History I am often called upon to recognize patterns and cycles spanning over four centuries, while in English classes I need to write persuasive essays by reasoning through source material and supporting my theses."
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WHY THIS COURSE?
- Innovation: Stanford has developed an innovative approach to introducing logic (based on "Herbrand" semantics), which makes the subject accessible to high school students.
- Educational Requirements. The content of the course meets at least two of the standards for mathematical practice required by Common Core. And it has been approved for credit at multiple schools in California in support of UC's g requirement for Mathematics and Computer Science.
- Online Materials: All materials are available online for free, for both teachers and students, and will remain available in perpetuity. See http://intrologic.stanford.edu.
- Diverse Materials. The course includes video, lectures, notes, automatically graded exercises, supplementary problems, an interactive glossary, and challenging puzzles and games, allowing different students to take the paths through the materials that suits their preferred learning styles.
| Puzzles Students learn to solve: |
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FOREIGN POLICY INVASION PUZZLE: The world has two types of nations: strong and weak. If a strong nation invades a weak nation, it will annex the weak nation (and become bigger) but it will itself become weak for some period of time. Strong nations never try to invade other strong nations. A weak nation can be invaded by only one strong nation. If more than one strong nation chooses to invade a weak nation, the strong nations flip a coin to determine who may invade. Each nation wants to be as big as possible, but nations do NOT want to be invaded; they would rather stay the same size than be annexed. Assume that the leaders of all the nations are completely rational. There are five strong nations and one weak nation. Will the weak nation be invaded? Explain why or why not.
SAFECRACKING PUZZLE: There is a combination safe with four switches on the front, each with three positions (low, medium, and high). If the switches are set into an opening combination, then when you try to open the safe, it will open; otherwise, no dice. In general, there are 3^4 = 81 possible combinations. However, this is a cheap safe; and only two of the switches actually matter; if you set those two switches right, the safe will open. Unfortunately, you do not know which are the important switches or which positions work. What is the minimum number of combinations you must try that will *guarantee* to open the safe? What is your plan?
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WHY THIS CAMP?
- Instructors. An award-winning high school teacher and a Stanford Computer Science professor (who literally wrote the book on Logic).
- Limited Enrollment. Since we're targeting registration of just 18 teachers, you will benefit from individual attention and small class size.
- Immersive Schedule: Weekdays 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM CDT from July 11 - July 15.
- Certification: Certificate of Completion and (if desired) listing in our public directory of teachers who have completed the training.
TEACHERS
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Michael Towne started out his career in Marine Corps, but switched to teaching, and was responsible for a ten fold increase in enrollment by building a new program in Engineering at his current school. He was entrusted by the College Board to testify on its behalf in front of US Congress. |
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Michael Genesereth is a professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. He is best known for his work on computational logic and its applications in enterprise computing, computational law, and general game playing. He has taught logic for 30 years at Stanford and offers an annual massive open online course, or MOOC, on logic. Professor Genesereth directs the Logic Group at Stanford and is the founder and research director of CodeX (The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics). |
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible for the course, teachers must be:
- teaching students in grade 9, 10, 11, or 12
- approved to teach a course on Logic or to incorporate Logic into an existing course
Each teacher must have a computer or tablet with access to the Internet, a recent version of Safari or Chrome or Firefox, and a recent version of Zoom (available for free at http://zoom.us).
FEES
Tuition for five days of training is $750. (Laptops or tablets are required but are not provided.) Limited financial aid is available and is awarded (based on the need) to eligible teachers who would not otherwise be able to attend the camp. Teachers interested in availing themselves of our tuition abatement program should include in their essays their plans to incorporate logic into their teaching at their schools and verify the unavailability of funding from their school districts.
DEADLINES
Application for Logic For All must be completed by May 31, 2022. Admission to this camp is on a rolling basis with a target of 18 teachers. Though we've established May 31, 2022 as the cutoff date for applying, we will review application forms as soon as they are filed; and we will continue to review them until we fill all the available places. We encourage you to apply early so that you won't be waitlisted.
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