Applied Mathematics News

The Department of Mathematics and Physics proudly hosted the much-anticipated Escape Room 2023. This was the fifth Escape Room created and run by faculty in the department and the second room designed by Professors Amy Tucker and Ben Wilson.

Open to all Stevenson students, faculty, and staff, the Escape Room provided an exciting opportunity for the community to partake in a thrilling game in which participants found themselves “locked” in a room, challenged to unravel a series of puzzles and riddles using elements within the space to make their “escape” within a designated time limit.

This year’s theme transported participants to the undersea lab of Dr. Gustav Fechner. A total of 85 participants on 20 teams attempted the room. This included 58 students on 13 teams and 27 faculty/staff on 7 teams. The winning student team, comprised of Alyssa O’Kelley, D’annccie Thurston, Cedar Brown, Miriam Walton, and Clare Oshman (pictured above from left to right) will have their names added to the Escape Room Champions plaque which hangs outside of MAC S150.

Prof. Amy Tucker presented a poster titled, “Implementing Mastery-Based Grading in a Foundational Math Class,” at the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMAYTC). The poster was the culmination of a 2-year fellowship with AMATYC’s Project ACCCESS (Advancing Community College Careers: Education, Scholarship, and Service) Cohort 18. For the fellowship, Prof. Tucker had to complete a project and attended two AMATYC conferences and one regional conference for the purpose of professional development and networking with her peers around the US.

Students and faculty from the Department of Mathematics and Physics welcomed participants to the Mathstravaganza as part of Maryland STEM Festival. The event featured several interactive math exhibits and games accessible to all ages and mathematical backgrounds. Some of the interactive exhibits included a giant Tower of Hanoi mathematical puzzle, the Chaos Game fractal generator, a station to create minimal surfaces with soap bubbles, the Monty Hall Jellybeans probability game, and Buffon’s Needle experiment with Pixy Stix.