Taught by Mrs. Burns, the mathematically modeling class at Mass Academy is a rigorous course where we use mathematics to model situations, learn new concepts in mathematics, and present our findings to the class. A large aspect to the class is collaboration, as every day we go over our homework problems as a group and students present their solutions. When we have projects, they are almost always in teams. When you have a situation where you are modeling a solution to fix a problem, it is always interesting to see how your peers would go about it when they present.
HiMCM is an international mathematical modeling competition in which teams of high school students are tasked with modeling a solution to one of two problems. This year, one problem was about bee populations and the other was about CO2 emissions. My group chose the problem about bee populations. At MAMS, groups were given exactly 49 hours to complete the problem and a corresponding paper that details your solution. I wrote an article for the MAMS newspaper, the Brickyard Beat, about HiMCM, so once it’s published feel free to check it out!
The Epsilon School Presentation was a project that we presented to the class. Essentially, a high school is hiring new teachers, and based on the number of students, teachers, and class enrollment, we were tasked with using mathematical modeling to determine which department needs a new teacher the most. One of my favorite parts about this assignment was that we had to present to the class and hear others' presentations. I gained a lot by seeing how my peers chose to tackle the problem.