MathPath 2025 - Week 2

 MathPath 2025 is flying by! This week students experienced a second round of breakouts. Some spent their mornings exploring math and visual spaces with Dr. Asia in Origami or Dr. Peterson in The Structure of Symmetries. Others explored Frobenius Numbers with Dr. Van Cott or played Lights Out with Dr. Clark. 

Trying some intricate folds in Origami


Afternoon breakouts were just as exciting, sending students to outer space for Interplanetary Twister with Dr. Kent or into non-Euclidean spaces for Hyperbolic Geometry I with Dr. Peterson. And the fun didn’t stop there! Students played Combinatorial Games with Prof Polanco and tested their sleight of hand learning card tricks in Mathemagic with Dr. Van Cott. 


Dr. Kent and some students in Interplanetary Twister


Our second week brought a new round of visiting speakers who delivered our guest plenaries! First up was Dr. Stephen Wolfram, who not only spoke to the entire camp, but stayed for afternoon activities to keep talking with interested MathPathers! We also spent some more time examining the connections between math and art with Dr. Asia by looking at Labyrinths and Magic Squares and graph coloring with Dr. Van Cott in Color me Curious.


Dr. Wolfram and a few students during afternoon activities.


Dr. Asia explains planetary magic squares



While we were sad to say goodbye to the faculty members who left at the end of this week, spirits were quickly lifted with the next round of field trips! On Sunday, students spent more time in nature at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary, tried their hands at some escape rooms, and stretched their legs rollerskating and playing laser tag. Students looking for a more relaxing experience traveled to Tanglewood to watch a symphony conducted by Thomas Adés! 


Rollerskating at Interskate 91 and hiking at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary!


Monday brought an adventure into Boston for a visit to the science museum! They explored the museum with their friends: doing experiments with light, and visiting with animals, some alive and some prehistoric. Students also got to see planetarium shows and demonstrations with Van De Graff generators!


Learning about creatures large and small at the Boston Science Museum!

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