MathPath 2024, Midway in the midwest

It's hard to believe that we're already halfway through our time together at MathPath 2024! It's incredible the familiarity that's achieved in such a short time when everyone is able to spend time, overcome problems, and have fun together. Lasting friendships are forming, and students are settled into camp life. Many packages of mail have been tossed and received, adults have been educated in this years’ slang terminology, and the yearly bout of students vs staff basketball was settled.

Dr. Asia preparing to perform matrix transformations with her Linear Algebra class

We continued with a wonderful series of plenaries this week. Glen brought us along on the journey through the early history of mathematics and astronomical trigonometry, showing clever ways in which ancient mathematicians came to astounding conclusions. With his departure this weekend, the history plenaries will be given by Dr. Deborah Kent (Dr. Kent), who we are excited to welcome for her sixth year with MathPath. We also had the chance to hear from local professor Dr. Jennifer Wagner from Washburn University, who shared the history and details regarding the four color theorem, a famous problem in graph theory. Dr. Lori McCune from Missouri Western State University gave a talk about Markov Chains and the cooperative game Count Your Chickens, showing how there can be brilliant math behind even the most seemingly straightforward games.

Participants of the 2024 Students Vs. Staff Basketball Game

We said goodbye to a sizable portion of faculty this week, including Dr. Geremias Polanco (Prof Polanco), but not before Prof Polanco was able to do his part in carrying the staff team to victory in the showdown between "Older than dirt" (the staff team) and "MathPath: A New Hope" (the student team). After last year's defeat at the hands of the students, a fire was lit under counselors, faculty, and staff to even the score. The first half started off slow, and ended with both teams tied. In the second half, counselor Andrew picked up the pace and flew across the court, securing numerous steals, layups, and rebounds for his team. These were necessary, as the students were deadly accurate with their three point shots and could not be left unguarded. In the end, under Prof D's coaching, the staff secured an undisputed victory.

Students work together during Dr. Nick Long's Dynamical Systems breakout

We welcomed some new faculty members this week, including Dr. Nick and Professor Duffy. Dr. Nick Long's (Dr. Nick) breakout Dynamical Systems explored what happens in different environments when you repeat a rule over and over and over and over and over and over … (you get the idea). Students were able to create expressions and models for these systems both with mathematical expressions and through using Python coding. Dr. Colleen Duffy (Professor Duffy) explored the many ways in which patterns like the golden ratio and fractals have brought math and art together in her breakout Math and Art. Some faculty from week 1 remained with us in week 2; Glen's Spherical Trigonometry breakout had students utilizing his collection of clear spheres (that can be drawn on) to help visualize the concepts of doing math on the surface of the sphere. 


Counselor Manuela and her group, riding the “Kenyan Cruise” at the Kansas City Zoo

We rounded off the week with a Sunday full of many more adventures. Some highlights included a trip to several escape rooms in the area, which proved to be no match for the brilliant MathPath students. A group toured the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, which is widely known for its vast collection spanning nearly every century and continent. Other trips included a kayaking trip down the Missouri river, rock climbing, and a visit to BRKTHROUGH, a recreational facility with many active physical and mental challenges and games. On Monday, we went to the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium. In addition to the variety of animals, students had the chance to take a lift over the savannah section of the zoo (the “Sky Safari”), and take a break from the heat in the midst of the aquarium (and other air-conditioned viewing houses).

Next week, we welcome new faculty, new breakouts, and of course, many more new experiences. Keep your eyes out for more updates as we head into the latter half of MathPath 2024!










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