This class is taught by Mrs. Burns and takes a new and innovative approach to real-world math modeling. In class, we explore new topics and tackle challenging problems collaboratively to gain strong problem-solving skills that we can apply to future problems. We took time to include a unit on statistics to help with independent STEM research projects, and that unit was one of my favorites because it was my first look at this subject, it was interesting to see how different tests worked and how to choose which test is most beneficial for which situations. As a whole, various problems are looked at and tackled in untraditional ways which makes classes very interesting and thoughtful. A variety of math competitions are held in school as well that take place throughout the year.
This was our first attempt at solving a math modeling problem using a real-world situation and tackling the issue it presented. For this problem in particular, this school was looking to add faculty members but didn’t know how to divide them into departments. Our job was to use the data provided to come up with a fair way to distribute the teachers and back it up with mathematical reasoning. This problem was a little intimidating at first because it really came down to declaring your assumptions and working from a smaller, more specific problem, to a broader problem. That being said, the more we got into analyzing the data and coming up with justifications, the more interesting it became to see how our thought processes evolved and how we tackled the problem.
Our group was assigned a problem of the week and I found this one very interesting as it looked at determining the day of someone’s birthday based on their date of birth. What made this problem so fun was the day when we got to test our methods with other people in other groups to see the different approaches we all took and how they worked. I liked how this problem made it so we had to put our method in words that anyone could understand; it forced us to really understand the concepts behind our approach in a way that anyone who read the steps could decipher it and try it out themselves.