Having more than 100 high school students excited about math sounds like an April Fool's hoax, but thanks to some creative workshops that incorporated candy, rope untangling and colored pencils, this scenario was no joke during ASU's Math Day on April 1.
The students spent the day with Arizona State University's School of Mathematical and Statistical SciencesThe School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences is an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. attending free workshops and a panel discussion, as well as a screening of Navajo Math Circles, which included a Q&A with the filmmakers.
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McClintock High School student Timur Karamanov catches a piece of candy to use in a demonstration on stability and oscillations in dynamical systems as part of ASU Math Day at Wexler Hall in Tempe on April 1.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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Tracy Stepien, visiting assistant professor, uses "candy sharing" to demonstrate stability and oscillations in dynamical systems to a group of students.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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Neal Bushaw, visiting assistant professor, leads a discussion on Conway's Rational Tangles — or the mathematics of rope untangling.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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Neal Bushaw, visiting assistant professor, explores with his group a simple sounding question — how can we use math to untie tangled ropes? This quickly leads to surprisingly complex mathematics, and the ropes give students a physical way to test their theories.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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ASU professor Matthias Kawski leads an activity that starts with simple billiards, but directly connects with cutting edge research. Using colored pencils and graph paper, students experimented, collectively generated data, observed patterns and proved their conjectures — leading to ever more questions.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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Members of an ASU student panel discuss their experience as mathematics majors. The high school students used notes from their workshops to form their questions for the panelists.
Ben Moffat/ASU Now
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