Welcome to Week |{∅}| of MathPath 43*47

The 20th consecutive year of MathPath has officially begun, also making 2021 the 2nd year of our virtual program! Though we are not in person this year, students will still experience enlightening plenaries, engaging breakouts, and having fun with their peers in activities and their counselor groups, all via Zoom.

Students and their families enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies on Sunday,  which featured the kick-off plenary given by Dr. Judy Walker of the University of Nebraska — Lincoln.  Dr. Walker demonstrated the Hat Game, where each player has either a black or white hat on their head and must guess the color of their own hat. We were amazed to learn about this seemingly simple game's connection to coding theory and the binary Hamming codes! MathPathers will discover more marvelous mathematics in the upcoming daily plenaries.

Prof D conducts the first writing plenary.

On Monday, Week 1 faculty began their first breakouts of the summer. While Dr. Jane and Glen offered some MathPath classics such as "Basic Counting" and "Heavenly Mathematics," respectively, students also had the chance to experience new breakouts including "Exploding Dots" with Prof S and "Geometric Machines" with Dr. Z. Two of our Senior Staff Assistants also offered exciting new topics this week: Sarah took students a step above calculus in "Discretizing Differential Equations," while Ben introduced students to some interesting methods of problem-solving in "The Amazing Algorithmic Race."

Students are already getting to know one another in activities, from last year's favorites such as Codenames and Skribbl.io to new offerings ranging from speed math to karaoke. MathPathers are also bonding in their counselor groups, playing games and drawing together.



Katie's counselor group created a collective self-portrait.

New and returning students are energized for this month of math and all of the fun to come! Even in this virtual setting, the spirit of MathPath shines through thanks to all of the faculty and staff working hard to give students the fullest MathPath experience. As expected, the enthusiasm of the MathPathogens is palpable in plenaries, activities, and the virtual classroom. The entire MathPath community is off to a great start this summer, and we can't wait to see what is in store these next 4 weeks!

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