Math Modeling is taught by Ms. Burns. We learn to develop mathematical models that address real world problems. Most assignments are either group projects or homework problems. The focus is to teach students how to approach problems that they have not seen before and seeing connections between different types of problems. We start the year with analyzing a card trick with math and uncover a surprisingly large amount of math related to it.
The Epsilon Project was the first math modeling problem we had to present. The Epsilon School has recently had renovations, dramatically increasing the student population. They are wondering which subjects they should hire new teachers for. We used previous enrollment data to determine what subjects would be most likely to need more teachers for next year.
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The HiMCM (High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling) is done over the course of two days at MAMS. We were asked to analyze how the population of a honey bee population will change over time and how many flowers a honey bee hive can support. We created a simulation in Python that considered various factors such as seasons, hive splitting, and a bee's stage of life. It provided how many bees a colony would produce. We also started to consider how nectar consumption would allow a hive to continue surviving. At the end, we developed some estimates for how many hives would be needed to support crops based on the density of flowers.
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