Math Modeling focuses on our ability to solve complex problems and communicate our methods clearly. Our teacher encourages collaboration and teaches us important problem-solving techniques to formulate and investigate mathematical conjectures. In the end, we learn to use our mathematical knowledge to find patterns and make conjectures to solve unfamiliar, abstract problems. Scroll down to read about some projects and assignments I have completed through this course.
The Epsilon School needs to hire new teachers to balance the increase in student population for the new school year. However, the school was unsure how to place the teachers and which subjects would need the extra teachers. Shaurya, Antony, and I were given the task of hiring the new faculty based on mathematical reasoning. We created assumptions, used ratio methods, and validated our results.
From this project, we were able to work together and communicate our work effectively. While this project required a lot of trial and error, we learned how to develop and execute a mathematical model. The skills we gained from this rewarding project were used in future projects when solving longer, more difficult problems.
The Happy Birthday POW was to develop a system for finding out the day of the week when someone was born based on the person's birthday. However, we were only given an October 2023 calendar and had to make the directions clear for someone without a mathematical background. Kiera, Claire, and I worked backwards and validated our methods with other birthdays.
Our group collaborated to formulate an efficient method. Through the write-up, we had to simplify complex math ideas. In the past, we worked on communicating our work to people with a significant math background. However, this project pushed us to think of common math concepts in new ways, deepening our understanding of them.
In November, I participated in the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM) competition along with Derek, Megan, and Palak. It is a 50-hour math competition where we use mathematics to model, develop, and communicate a solution to a real-world problem. Our task was to model the environmental and financial implications of a city transitioning to an electric buses.
We had to research different mathematical models and apply them to many different metropolitan areas. In the end, we developed a final paper with our results. This experience taught me what it means to use math models in real situations and how important it is to communicate our methods clearly and effectively.