TEACHING STATEMENT

Mariano Cristobal Franco de Leon

url: www.mcfrancodeleon.com
Introduction
My development as an educator started during my undergraduate studies. At this point, I have
gained experience as a lecturer, instructor, teaching assistant, and as a tutor for students at all levels
ranging from elementary school through college and upper-division undergraduate levels. My academic
experience includes the instruction of about 1100 undergraduate students in 24 different classes (regular
and summer sessions, upper and lower division), workshops and educational programs. I also have
communicated my philosophy on teaching through outreach talks, curricular design, elaboration of
multipurpose educational material and my involvement in programs at the University of California,
Irvine (UCI) and off campus organizations.
Undergraduate studies, my first contact with teaching
My passion for Mathematics and the reason I emphasize geometric visualization when teaching
started during my undergraduate studies at the University of Guanajuato (UG), which in collabora-
tion with the Center for Mathematical Research (CIMAT , Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas)
represents one of the highest educational institutions to study Mathematics in Mexico. I became fasci-
nated by Geometry and its applications (mechanics, electromagnetism, optics, cosmology), and I took
as many Geometry classes as I could: Euclidean, Spherical, Hyperbolic, Complex, Real, Differential,
Modern, Projective, Affine, and Algebraic. As a student, geometric, physical and visual concepts are
often easier to grasp and understand than abstract descriptions and formulations, I can completely
relate to students when they express a desire to see a visual pattern in order to understand. Main-
taining an excellent student status helped me to get hired as a T.A for the first time in upper division
undergraduate classes.
Teaching at UCI
Throughout my doctoral studies, I have worked as a T.A. since 2010, and as a lecturer in 2016. The
collaboration with other instructors (guidance and opinion of observers during my class), instruction
about active learning (a class on teaching and learning mathematics, advice from the Learning and
Academic Resource Center at UCI), and feedback from the students evaluations had helped me to im-
prove my performance as instructor considerably. My duties (in most cases) during these appointments
included; leading 3-4 discussion sessions per week, writing quizzes/exams (and solutions), grading and
proctoring examinations, developing syllabi, covering shifts at the tutoring center and office hours as
well, coordinating with T.As to create effective discussions, managing webpage, and developing online
material.
In my personal approach as an educator, I try to make mathematics attractive and reinforce primary
material from regular school implementing nonconventional ways combining Art, Computer Program-
ming and Mathematics. Pairing mathematics with visual arts allows me to attract a diverse population
of students, reaching out to those that are often intimidated by more traditional pedagogical approaches
to mathematics, and girls in particular (which represent a minority in STEM fields). One of my biggest
personal accomplishments was a 25-minute talk for 8th-grade girls about Art, music and mathematics
as part of the program Science and Math camp for girls organized by AAUM (American Association
of University Women) at UCI introducing basic ideas on congruences and combinatorics with sound
representations.
Outreach
I have participated in two UCI initiatives for middle school students. Math CEO program is commit-
ted to offering enrichment activities in mathematics for middle school students in underserved commu-
nities and creating educational material. I have been a volunteer for Math CEO students from Lathrop
and Villa middle schools in Santa Ana, Orange County, CA. Besides weekly time invest writing, dis-
cussing and developing material with other instructors and presenting the material to the students (two
hours per week), I also have being recruiting students, and giving talks to parents promoting college
M. C. Franco de Leon. www.mcfrancodeleon.com 1/3
and education. I developed and presented activities at Math CEO program Patterns in teselania, May
13, 2015 (joint work with Dr. Andres Forero) working on fundamental transformations (isometries)
such as reflections, orientation, translations and rotations, recognition of geometrical shapes (tilings).
From this session I got one of my favorite quotes from the students:

I will say it again: Math is like art.

At the same time, I had worked with the talented students of the UCI Math Circle, where I developed
and presented the material Anti engineer, the tunnels specialist as a first part to the topological
classification of surfaces, May 2, 2016. Samples of the booklet can be found on my personal web page
and in the figure (1) below, where I exhibit a flow chart for the classification. This material can be
easily adapted for undergraduate and graduate courses as well (and is highly visual).

Figure 1: A sample of the material Anti engineer, the tunnels specialist about classification of
surfaces. The flow chart was inspired by computer programming flow charts.

During my graduate studies I was awarded a Doctoral fellowship by the University of California
Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS) from were I have mentor graduate students
coming from Mexico for the first time in the UC system. I also have participated in the program
Club de Ciencias Mexico as a curricular designer, instructor, mentor, and volunteer evaluator of
students applications. This program is oriented to high school and freshman undergraduate students.
It promotes the interaction and collaboration between students in Mexico and the US. When leading
each club, I covered ideas in geometry (motivated by Benoit Mandelbrot, M.C Eschers work) to reinforce
M. C. Franco de Leon. www.mcfrancodeleon.com 2/3
material from regular school (calculus, algebra, logic and recursion). Additionally, I implemented
hands-on activities such as painting and computer programming (fractals) to explain concepts about
topology, astrophysics, dynamical systems, and chaos theory.
As one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century George I. Gurdjieff remarks on his
teaching,
there is a difference between knowing and understanding.
Teaching those concepts requires actually understanding, not just of ideas but about human interactions
and our ways of learning. In my experience as an international student, I found that the various cultural
and educational approaches (teaching styles) generate a huge impact on the students learning process.
For this reason, I am committed to incorporate active learning techniques, with visualization, physical
applications, discussions, and art in my classes and workshops. I love to be surprised by the fact that
after years of teaching, the challenges of mathematical language and the practice of communication
has improved my own understanding of mathematics and its activities. .

Instructor and tutor in the Stanford Workshop Assistant at CIMAT, Gua-

Pre-Collegiate International Institutes
(SPII) and the Stanford Online High
School (OHS).
Mathematical Fundaments in
Physics August 21st-September 7th 2017.
Mathematical Logic July - August
2017.
Lecturer at the Orange Coast College
(OCC)
Calculus. Spring 2017 (two sessions).
Lecturer at the University of Califor-
nia, Irvine (UCI)
Calculus. Fall 2016 (two sessions).
T. A. positions at the University of Cal-
ifornia, Irvine (UCI)
Calculus. Winter 2016 (two discus-
sions), Summer 2015, Summer 2011.
Multivariable Calculus. Winter 2014.
Linear Algebra. Fall 2015 (two discus-
sions), Summer 2013, Spring 2012 (upper
division).
Infinite Series and Linear Algebra.
Summer 2012.
Introduction to Differential Geome-
try. Winter 2012 (upper division).
najuato, Mexico.
7th Workshop on Calculus Problem
Solving. July 6th-10th 2009.
6th Workshop on Calculus Problem
Solving. June 30th - July 4th 2008.
Instructor for Club de Ciencias Mexico
Instructor of Fracta-Fractorus. August
2nd-8th 2015. Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico.
Instructor of Geomantra. January 11th-
17th 2015. Ensenada, Mexico.
Co-instructor of Divertzciencia. July
27th-August 2nd 2014. Guanajuato, Gto.,
Mexico.
T. A. positions at University of Guana-
juato and the Center for Mathematical
Research
Mathematical Analysis. August-
December 2009 (upper division).
Number Theory. August-December
2009 (upper division), August-December
2008
Ordinary Differential Equations
II.January-June 2009.

M. C. Franco de Leon. www.mcfrancodeleon.com 3/3