Wow... it's been ages since I thought of UMTYMP. I went through two years of UMTYMP, and it was the most amazing program. In those two years we covered four years of high school math. It taught me math quick, and also how to work hard.
A side benefit is that because I was taking math at the University of Minnesota outside school hours, I had a free period at school when I would normally take math. (Along with two friends.) We had free reign over our Macintosh computer lab for nearly an hour a day for two years and it was AWESOME. I programmed some pretty wicked stuff in Hypercard, messed around with ripping audio from TV shows onto the computer, fked around on the school's network, and loved it all. (I'm dating myself a bit; this was around 1990-1992 or so.)
Programs like this are amazingly awesome, and they should spread far more than they do.
A side benefit is that because I was taking math at the University of Minnesota outside school hours, I had a free period at school when I would normally take math. (Along with two friends.) We had free reign over our Macintosh computer lab for nearly an hour a day for two years and it was AWESOME. I programmed some pretty wicked stuff in Hypercard, messed around with ripping audio from TV shows onto the computer, fked around on the school's network, and loved it all. (I'm dating myself a bit; this was around 1990-1992 or so.)
Programs like this are amazingly awesome, and they should spread far more than they do.