On Saturday, April 18th 2015, the first-of-its-kind National Math Festival was held in Washington D.C., where thousands of visitors experienced the beauty and power of mathematics. Members of the SIAM Student Chapter at UMBC (Samuel Khuvis, Jonathan Graf, Zana Coulibaly, Sarah Swatski and Joshua Austin) volunteered to staff exhibits at the "Math-Midway" presented by the National Museum of Mathematics. Over 20 interactive exhibitions at the festival allowed visitors of all ages to step into the world of math.
Samuel Khuvis staffed the Organ Function grinder, where visitors learned how functions work. Jonathan Graf staffed the Spacellation exhibit, where he helped construct a giant geometric coat-hanger construction in its national debut. Zana Coulibaly staffed Pirate X and Lady Y, where visitors learned how to balance a pirate ship and exercise their algebra skills to solve for unknown weights in an interactive environment. Sarah Swatski staffed Magician and the Moon, where visitors aimed to cover a large circular moon with as few smaller disks as possible, learning that asymmetry was needed for the optimal solution. Joshua Austin staffed the Square-Wheeled Tricycle, where visitors were able to ride a square-wheeled tricycle on a roadway of inverted catenaries.
The event was a huge success and we enjoyed sharing mathematics with visitors of all ages. Visitors were able to see that mathematics is so much more than worksheets and calculations in the classroom, and it is applicable to everyday life.
