For students who need to sharpen their skills, a free summer workshop teaches the language of mathematics

Do equations make you queasy? Does calculus give you the creeps? Does solving for 'x' make you say "why?" If so, Pitt has a solution for your mathematical woes.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy, part of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, has created a new workshop to help students fight their fear of math and build the confidence and fluency they need to succeed in natural sciences coursework - all for free, with no grades on the line.

The six-week online program, running during Summer Session II, was designed for any student who wants to sharpen their math fundamentals before taking natural sciences courses. Students can enroll at any time.

"We don't want the fact that maybe a student came here without really being so comfortable with trigonometry or something like that to prevent them from being able to engage with physics concepts and to understand how the world works," said Andrew Zentner, professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The program covers symbolic algebra, geometry, trigonometry and problem solving - the mathematical building blocks for introductory physics and beyond.

Teaching Assistant Professor Arnab Dasgupta said he observed that students' fears often stem from them viewing the subject as "math and not a language."

"The entire thing that we do in physics is just observing nature and putting it in a language," said Dasgupta. "And the language that we use is math."

Dasgupta's approach to teaching mathematics is similar to teaching a foreign language, he said, emphasizing daily practice. Students can expect a new concept each day paired with 20 problems, building toward the kind of fluency where equations feel as natural as conversation.

The decision to strip out tuition and grades was deliberate. Dasgupta said costs cause families to question whether the course is truly necessary. Additionally, grades layer on the very anxiety the program is trying to eliminate.

"I want this to be a playground area where they come and learn at their own will, at their own pace," Dasgupta said.

Zentner added: "We don't want to just have it be only the people that can pay extra tuition. All Pitt students should be able to access the stuff that we're teaching here at Pitt."

While any Pitt student may enroll, Dasgupta said the program may be especially helpful for students who arrive at Pitt with math gaps and limited prior access to academic support. These often include students from a lower socioeconomic status who may not think to seek out extra help on their own.

"My main [goal] as a teacher - I want to help those who want the help," Dasgupta said. "I want to help them so that they can come up and be confident and compete at the same level."

All sessions will be recorded and posted to Dasgupta's YouTube channel, so students can revisit material on their own schedule. The department is hoping for at least 200 enrollees, with an eye toward expanding the program in future semesters if the pilot succeeds.

Students who complete the program will walk away comfortable with basic algebra, trigonometry, and geometry, said Zentner. Beyond technical proficiency, they will emerge confident in their ability to tackle these subjects and apply them in their science courses.

That confidence, he said, is what opens the door to physics and everything on the other side of it.

"All of these classes where you might have to do some algebra, and that anxiety of doing algebra might discourage the students from taking it - all of that. We want to get rid of that anxiety," Zentner said.

Photography by Aimee Obidzinski