Applied Mathematics News

Applied math majors Allie Hope and Luna Huynh presented their research at the Joint Mathematics Meetings 2023 in Boston, MA. The JMM is one of the largest math conferences in the world each year and the student poster session always draws a large crowd. Allie and Luna shared the work they had completed with Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Mark Branson, on “The Effectiveness of Three Promising Psychological Interventions on Math Anxiety and Academic Performance”.

Applied Mathematics majors Julian Cha, Luna Huynh, and Sam Iseman performed with Stevenson’s Ukulele Ensemble. The concert included classic Hawaiian songs and holiday favorites. The performance was the culmination of the Stevenson course MUS 170 Exploring Elements of Music/Hawaiian Ukulele.

Guiliana Datnoff (Stevenson Applied Math graduate and current Stevenson MAT student) and Associate Professor of Mathematics Benjamin Wilson presented at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference in Baltimore. The talk titled “Student Perspectives on Recommendations for
Improving High School Mathematics” was based on research they did in Fall 2021 when Guiliana was a senior Applied Mathematics major. The work was very well-received and generated some great discussions. Since the research was based on an NCTM publication, the presenters were excited to share it at an NCTM conference.

Prof. Amy Tucker traveled to Toronto, ON, CA for the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) Annual Conference.  Prof. Tucker was selected as a fellow in Cohort 18 of AMATYC’s Project ACCCESS (Advancing Community College Careers: Education, Scholarship and Service) which kicked-off in Toronto.  This fellowship is designed for math faculty members in their first two years of full-time teaching who work with students who are in their first two years of college.  As Prof. Tucker is the Foundational Math Coordinator, this fellowship provides an opportunity to improve the foundational and co-requisite math courses here at Stevenson.

While in Toronto, Prof. Tucker also had the opportunity to see some sights in the city.  She saw a play, went to a Christmas village with several members of her cohort, visited the Royal Ontario Museum, and, most importantly, got to eat some poutine!  Prof. Tucker looks forward to the next AMATYC conference in Omaha where she will be presenting a poster based on her work this semester.

Each year, faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Physics create an escape room for Stevenson students. In general, an escape room involves “locking” participants in a room and requiring them to solve a series of puzzles within a certain amount of time to accomplish a goal (like finding a key/code to escape). The escape room allows students to apply skills they are learning in their math classes like logic, reasoning, creativity, problem solving, and teamwork in a fun and exciting way outside of the classroom. The Escape Room returned as an in-person event this year for the first time since 2019 with the theme of Magic!