WELCOME to Math Modeling at MAMS! Taught by Mrs. Burns, Math Modeling encompasses a large variety of topics in the math field, from its real-world applications (such as how Actuaries use Math Modeling to determine risk), to what you might expect from a more general math course (like work with Vectors or Algebra). Personally, my favorite part of Math Modeling are the occasional (and optional!) "challenge problems" that help, well, challenge you and allow you to learn new things! Speaking of which, I guarantee that even if you are already well versed in both school and competition math, you will learn something new from MAMS' Math Modeling Course!
To the left, you can see one of the big overarching projects that we are currently working
on in Math Modeling --- a competition called MTFC (Modeling the Future Challenge). Essentially,
this challenge focuses on, well, modeling the future using math. Provided here is our project proposal,
in which we explain what specific topic we are going to be modeling the risk of. MTFC is especially cool,
since we are able to see how actuaries (experts in the field) actually model the risks of certain decisions
using math! My group is working on the risk of investing into stocks (particularly for the stockholders
themselves), since we are all somewhat interested in stocks and want to create a safer environment for people
to trade. So far, we are working on collecting data, and soon, we will begin work on creating a Math Model
that can accurately predict the risk of investing into stocks!
To the right, you can now see another cool way that students collaborate with each other during Math Modeling.
Every so often, we will be assigned a POW (or Problem Of the Week) to work on with a group of random people within our section
during the week. We then have to write a small paper regarding the problem itself, how we got to a solution, the solution itself,
and then some extensions to the problem that we could tackle later on. This specific one poses an interesting question:
Given someone's birthdate
as well as the calendar of the current month (in this case, October 2024), can anyone with any math background (assuming they know how to add, subtract
, divide, or multiply) figure out the day of the week they were born?
This problem was super fun to solve, and I hope that you are able to follow our
instructions and find the day of the week that you were born!