MathPath

That’s a wrap! MathPath 2020 is officially complete, and it ended with a bang. The end of our last week consisted of activity finales, breakout conclusions and a closing ceremony complete with a final plenary, a talent show, and many, many goodbyes! We are incredibly grateful to our staff, faculty, counselors, students and families for helping make remote MathPath a success in these uncertain times. We had a blast, and we hope you did too! Our counselor groups have become truly close over the span of this month, spending time with each other at least three times per MathPath-day. They showed their spirit one last time on Friday’s “Counselor Group Theme” day, where they chose their own theme and dressed up to show it! Ian’s counselor group’s Spirit Week theme Our counselors did an incredible job bringing the fun to remote MathPath. They managed to put on roughly 20 activities a day — allowing us to repeat our favorites, but coming up with new ideas all the way until the end....

As is tradition, the last week of MathPath is jam-packed with action. With Spirit Week themed-outfits, exciting new plenary speakers, and final rounds of our favorite activities, we certainly have a lot on our plates! We showed our spirit so far this week with MathPath-wear day on Monday, Counselor Group Rainbow Day on Tuesday and Black Tie (Dress-to-Impress) Day on Wednesday. MathPathers displayed some impressive outfits! They’ve also been bringing great energy to the usual daily activities — making impressive guesses in “Geoguessr” and employing some creative strategies in “Codenames”. Corinne’s group in their Spirit Week orange Breakout classes are also the subject of some excitement this week. Silas’s “Math and Music” is exploring the connections between group theory and music, while Maddy is offering a look into the niche topic of “Rigidity Theory”. Prof. Rogness is introducing us to the world of topology in his classic breakout “Shape of Space”. Möbius Strips in...

Another week down! MathPath reached full speed in week two as we dove into more breakouts, plenaries and activities with our new friends and classmates. By the end of the week, we are truly feeling the MathPath community connections becoming stronger. Week two saw the rise of a couple of special committees as our MathPathers got serious about contributing to some classic traditions. The Yearbook Committee has begun the formidable task of putting together MathPath’s annual yearbook (this year in a digital edition). The Talent Show Committee has been accepting submissions for the end-of-program talent show, where our entire community shares some fantastic performances. Finally, our counselors announced MathPath Spirit Week 2020. We expect to see some truly extraordinary arrays of outfits next week! Tuesday’s Spirit Week theme — counselor group colors While many students remain transfixed with the popular activity of online pictionary, week two saw the entrance of some exci...

Half of MathPath has officially passed! Although it feels like we’ve experienced so much already, we’re planning to fit even more exciting activities, math and events into these last ten days. With our continuing breakouts and some exciting full-program events coming up this weekend, we have a lot to look forward to. Remote MathPath has proven to be everything we could have hoped for and more, and we can’t wait to share the rest of it with you over the second half of the month. Our MathPathers are really getting to know each other, even when they’re separated by thousands of miles! With group-drawing projects and attempts to beat the standing “counting game” record, counselor groups spend their three meetings a day making connections and growing closer. Breakouts, activities and dance parties provide us with new subsets of MathPathers to meet, befriend and do math with. Sydney’s counselor group sharing their talents We continued learning new math this week in another batch ...

It’s hard to imagine just how much has happened in these first seven days at MathPath 2020. We ran twelve breakout classes, hosted twelve plenaries, saw six Problems of the Day, and put on over 60 activity sessions. Most importantly, we met 80 MathPathogens, twelve counselors, twelve faculty members, an assortment of staff, and a couple special visitors! Here are some of the highlights from our very busy week! We saw some excellent Problem of the Day solutions this week, as our MathPathers took full advantage of the digital submission format. One of our favorites was this solution to Dr. Hill’s “Cross Over the Bridge” problem which featured some excellent Lego illustrations – awesome!  A MathPather’s fantastic PoD solution! Students fell in love with “Skribblio”, an online Pictionary game which consistently racks up a long list of participants. Will we ever get tired of this game? Only time will tell! MathPathers also brought drawing into counselor group meetings, wh...

With the help of our entire community, MathPath 2020 is officially underway! This summer’s program certainly looks quite different from any other in our 19-year history, but that’s not to say we aren’t enjoying the same breakouts, “Glenaries”, activities, and counselor group bonding we have in years past. Physical classrooms have turned to virtual workspaces, lecture halls to giant video conferences, and board games to online play-rooms — but MathPathogens are still absorbing new mathematics, applauding each Problem of the Day winner, and making new friends over a game of chess. We kicked things off on Sunday with an exciting opening plenary from Annalisa Crannell, where we took a look at Albrecht Dürer’s St. Jerome in His Study from a projective geometric perspective. Dr. Crannell bent our minds towards the point at infinity while teaching us how to draw better three-dimensional cubes, all in one talk! St. Jerome in His Study by Albrecht Dürer Week-one breakouts got roll...