SMPosium

I cannot believe we have been here close to two weeks now! I am loving this version if “math camp.” Everyone is very very kind, smart, and willing to work hard. It is an exciting and refreshing community to be part of.

Today is the first day of our SMPosium! As far as I am aware, SMPosium is like a mini-conference within our month-long SMP. SMP alums who have gone on to earn a PhD in mathematics are invited back to visit. They give presentations, are on panels, and spend time with us current SMPers. We talk with them, ask questions, get to know one another, and really become part of the “multigenerational” SMP community, so to speak.

There will be about 20 alums who have come back for SMPosium this year. I don’t know what it is going to be like, but everyone who has been to SMPosium before (our TAs, program assistants, professors, etc.) is very excited, so I am excited. :)

We have been working in groups on problem sets, class work, and projects a lot more than I am used to. At first I wasn’t sure I would like that, but now I do. In the past, I have found group work to be frustrating and not particularly productive, but here I have been happily amazed at how our group work really CAN be better than working alone. Since all of us are very hard working and want to have a complete understanding of the math, working together in SMP groups has really helped improve my understanding of the topics we are studying. It’s the way group work is supposed to be. If anything, perhaps we spend too long on a question because we are trying to understand it more thoroughly than is necessary. :o

Yesterday I was working on my problem set for Lie theory with a friend in a small study room in the basement of the dorm. We were working on a whiteboard…with brand new markers…in a small enclosed space– the smell was overwhelming and we had to stand up on the desks in the room to open the ceiling-level window! All in the name of math. :)

I am now wary of the concept of putting a white board in a small room. One more reason I prefer chalk boards to whiteboards.

SMP Begins

After talking to a number of girls, I think a lot of us were feeling a bit overwhelmed yesterday. Everyone is so nice and enthusiastic, but there was a lot of class, a lot of homework, a lot of new people, a lot of things to do. Nevertheless, I am really excited to be here and beginning to settle in.

We are all taking two classes this month. Yesterday we began a topology course: Topology and Geometry from the Universe to Molecules, and today began a course on Lie Theory.

In topology we talked a lot about the shape of the universe and different dimensions. One of the ways we’ve begun to talk about dimensions is by using the Flatland story. I had never heard about it, but from my understanding it was a novel originally written as a satire on the Victorian social structures. However, the premise of the story is that a character who has grown up and lived in a two-dimensional, flat world suddenly learns about the existence of a third dimension. It’s since been turned into a film: see the Flatland trailer.

We used these characters to think about what the universes “look like” to the two-dimensional characters. For example, we discussed the idea of how one would attempt to describe a sphere, something that exists in 3 space the way we as humans understand it, to a two-dimensional character. With this as an analogy, we began to imagine the existence of shapes in 4 space, a dimension one above our own.

Tonight we had a visiting presenter. I enjoyed her presentation a lot, but she came to dinner with us tonight, and I really loved the conversations that came out of that. In a smaller group, we really got into our own experiences with gender in math and minorities in education, among other topics. By the end, we were telling our favorite math jokes. I laughed harder than I have in a while during that conversation. She was really cool, and I feel like I got to know the other SMPers better because of that conversation.

I’m already behind in my homework for the week, but I have learned so much just in these first three days. I have heard that the grant from the NSF for the program is running out this year and may not be continued. I think that would be a mistake.

In MN!

I made it! Well, not quite, but almost. I made it to the MSP airport. :)

I got up bright and early at 4:30 this morning to catch the 6:30 flight to Minnesota. There weren’t any problems and I got here at 8am their time. When we landed, there was a little boy who very excitedly exclaimed to his mom:

“Isn’t this GREAT?! We travelled all this way and we still have the WHOLE day ahead of us!!”

I actually laughed out loud at that (I couldn’t help it. It’s early.) because I had literally just been thinking something to the effect of I can’t believe I’m this tired and we still have the whole day ahead of us…

I’ve had my coffee now, rested a little bit more, and am doing better. I can’t wait to meet everyone at Carleton tonight! I can’t believe it’s already today!

One Week Until SMP

One week from today I will be in Minnesota! I will have gotten up early to take a flight at 6:30am, and I imagine at this time of night I will be in the dorm at Carleton struggling to sleep in my new room for the month. I will have traveled 1000 miles to get there, and have had a busy day meeting all the people who will soon become friends.

I absolutely cannot believe it is only a week away. What I have been calling “Phase One” of my summer–enjoying home and working at McDonald’s– is coming to a close. I had my last day of work at last night. I will certainly miss some things about my job at McDonald’s. Especially co-workers and our regular customers. I actually had conversations with some of our regulars yesterday, telling them it was my last day for the summer and saying goodbye.

I took this week off. I need to finish unpacking my things from college (I never actually did that. Most of it is just in boxes in the basement right now!), then pack a suitcase for my month in MN, and will also be visiting friends around here before I go.

It’s been six weeks since I left college, and I haven’t done any “actual” math. I’m nervous about getting back into it, worried that I will have forgotten everything and will be behind, but I know I will be fine. I think it will come back pretty quickly.

A Photostory, My Mathematical Home, Part 2

(Above: I have learned that those tabletop podiums we have in all the classrooms make a very nice step stool to help me reach the top of the chalkboard)

The Space

When I was taking photos of campus last week, I spent some time specifically focusing on our math department.

Being a math major has become an important part of how I identify. I realized this at my college’s sophomore major declaration “celebration.” (This celebration seemed silly to me, since I had declared my major over a year prior. But I went anyway for the free cupcakes.)

Imagine a whole bunch of mostly-unwilling sophomores in an auditorium, wearing sticker name tags stating our chosen major, standing in front of the poster on the wall that matches our name tag. The deans instruct us to mingle, chat, and introduce ourselves to the other students in our major.

My first instinct was to say, “Hi. I’m a sophomore math major.”
But… I had to stop myself because I realized that was true about every single one of us in the group. I had to actually think about what I was going to say about myself. My major had become my quick go-to introduction.

Being a math major has become part of who I am. Of course there is so much more, but I am proud of my major and I love it. I feel welcomed into our department and into the math family at my school.

Even though I have learned being “home” is a lot more about people than place, these photos show some of the physical spaces that I associate with and have grown to love as part of my chosen major.

 

A LOT of Time Here

My Horse Friend

Stairs and Stairs and Stairs

The Babies

Cornelia Clapp

A View From the 4th Floor

Chalkboarding

The Math “Library”

I like math and people.

A Mother’s Day Hexaflexagon

If you haven’t yet, you should make sure to check out Vi Hart’s video on Hexaflexagons.

That video, plus her others ( Hexaflexagons 2 and Hexaflexagon Safety Guide) got me hooked on flexagons. They combine my interests in math, geometry, origami, and crafting in one project. They’re cool.

Last week I took a 24-hour end-of-semester celebration trip to NYC with one of my college friends. One of the stops on our trip was the Strand Bookstore, where I sifted through the entirety of the crafts section to try to find new patterns for papercrafting. I found Magic Books & Paper Toys, and was sold by it as soon as I saw it had an ENTIRE CHAPTER on crafting with flexagons! An entire chapter! She gives instructions and inspiration for hexaflexagons, square flexagons, and “magic wallet” flexagons.

Since it is Mother’s Day today, and I also wanted to practice my “flexagation,” I thought I would make my mom a hexaflexagon card. This is what I came up with.

I really like the way the hearts come together on some folds to make a flower, and others to make pairs of hearts (me and my mom). I’m excited to give it to her, and to show her how to fold and unfold the pattern. :) <3

I

love

you

A PhotoStory: My Mathematical Home, Part 1

The Surroundings

Monday I spent the morning walking around campus taking photos.

I finished my last exam Sunday night at 10pm, and went to bed right after. I woke up Monday morning and felt so free: The world seemed so much more beautiful after exams had ended.

The end of finals feels so exciting but also so bizarre. You go directly from having everything in the world to do straight to having nothing you need to do at all. I decided it was a good day to pick up my camera again. And since I will be away next semester, I am happy to have these photos of my college campus in case I need to remind myself what it’s like.

After two years of college, this place has become one of my homes.

I took a two-part series of photos of my “mathematical” college home. Below are the photos I call “The Surroundings”– the place I live, the place around where I study and work.

(click on one of the photos to enlarge the gallery)

the glass bridge connects our old and new science centers

Something they tell us on admissions tours is that people “actually” use this store periodic table of the elements to study for exams! That’s ridiculous, but we all remember it for some reason.

Our unofficial mascot. :)

The bridge in the back of the walking path on the edge of camps. I walk and run around the mile loop over and over. It’s so peaceful.

The campus is so beautiful in the spring.

I love these paper birds in the window.