Math modeling is taught by Mrs. Burns. Rather than focus on a traditional sector of math, this class focuses on problem solving and exploring mathematical relationships in the real world. Students work collaboratively to solve competition-style math problems, and great care is taken to explain solving methods from a variety of angles.
Throughout the year, we have completed many assignments in modeling software such as Mathematica and other tools of our choosing. One of these prompts was to model the relationship between a radioactive index and mortality rate, which I found to have a strong correlation (R2 = 0.85). I used Python in a Jupyter Notebook for this assignment and was able to create graphs using Matplotlib. This turned out to be a helpful exercise in applying my programming knowledge to a new task in math modeling.
In early November, all Mass Academy juniors engage in a 36-hour math competition known as HiMCM. I worked with Nevin Thinagar, Kyle Klamka, and Alex Chen on a submission, and we were asked to model the population of a honeybee colony. We designed a differential equation as our model and incorporated factors such as the egg laying rate, land area, flower density, and more. Though we may have had a few sleepless nights, I enjoyed learning about how math modeling can have real-world implications.