Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival

Math is often seen as a difficult subject to consume and fully understand. Many of us have experienced times where we become frustrated with mathematics and make it seem impossible. The wish to understand math were especially impossible to African-Americans in segregated America where not every child was given quality education. Katherine Johnson, an African-American NASA mathematician, experienced the inability to attend advanced math courses due to her race. It came with great effort to be where she is today in society. Her works were hidden and barely spoken about. However, her legacy stands with history.

Nowadays, everyone has a particular talent or interest that separates them from the pack. From a little age, my passion lied in my utter fascination of numbers and math. Whether I recalled sport stats or my teammates’ swim times to adding the total for the grocery, math has always been in my blood. Nevertheless, in the midst of my junior year, I discovered a newfound passion for art, while taking AP Art History.

Mathematics has become a very large part of society today. From the moment children learn the basic principles of math to the day those children become working members of society, everyone has used mathematics at one point in their life. The crucial time for learning mathematics is during the childhood years when the concepts and principles of mathematics can be processed more easily. However, this time in life is also when the point in a person’s life where information has to be broken down to the very basics, as children don’t have an advanced capacity to understand as adults do. Mathematics, an essential subject, must be taught in such a way that children can understand and remember.

Mathematics is not for one type of person: not only for the nerdy and weird outcasts, not only for the white male, not only for those who are not targeted by the stereotypes prevalent in the field. Mathematics is not dry, nor boring, nor focused on inane solutions never to be used after the discovery. Mathematics is not what people think it is; it is not one field, one theme, one subject. Mathematics is everything. Look around, with clear eyes, and you will see the art of mathematics everywhere. Dr. Diana Gu, the founder of MTY Academy, an extremely successful institute in the Austin community, and long-time, inspirational professor at the Texas State University, looks at the world and sees numbers. She sees passion and dedication and motivation. She sees intensity and zeal and excitement. Explaining that mathematics is essential for everyone, she emphasizes an idea: innate skill matters little, while practice is what defines you.

On August 31st, 2015, Charles Campbell, a math teacher at Pueblo Magnet High School, was “informed that he was one of the 25 recipients” of the “MathMovesU Math Hero” award (Pueblo Magnet High School, 2015, p.1). Mr. Campbell received $2500 for the award and that amount was matched and given to school as well (Pueblo Magnet High School, 2015, p.1). This teacher is one example of the

Mathematical Genius Community (MAGIC) managing a math competition biweekly, mainly for third graders to eighth graders attending the Young Explorers School. In these competitions, math concepts (algebra, geometry, probability, number sense, and counting) will be covered in order to enrich the student's knowledge. The competitions will be free of cost. Our main goal is for children to expand their mathematical knowledge through competition. We will host an individual test taken by everyone. Then, students will be placed in groups based on their score to take team tests. The testing portion of the competition will take around two hours with short breaks in between the

Central Idea: Festival culture has transformed into a global phenomenon that began in the 50s-60s.

After receiving an invitation from Megan Smith in April 2016 to come to DC for the summer to upgrade math learning for the country, I’ve been thinking about and brainstorming ideas with about a dozen math enthusiasts for how to get kids intrigued, engaged, and challenged by mathematics.

The event featured many fun things for everyone to enjoy from local arts and crafts to food trucks and much more.

During its first year, high school students traveled to Amidon-Bowen Elementary School in Washington D.C. once a week and helped ten 4th and 5th grade students improve their math skills by learning how to apply them. While attending Spelman College in

Festival of Faiths in Louisville, Kentucky. This festival encourages calls on different houses of worship and sponsors lectures on world religions.

Julia Bowman Robinson was an esteemed mathematician who was highly praised for her immense contributions to the mathematical community. Even though she grew up during a time when women’s suffrage and rights had just become publically recognize within the United States, she would still go on to become one of the most prestigious mathematicians of her generation, and arguably, of history overall. Being the first women to ever serve on the mathematical section of the National Academy of Sciences as well as being the first ever women to be elected to become president of the American Mathematical Society (Feuerman, 1994), she never fell short of performing feats to which many never thought they would ever see.

“Another course, EDU 360 Teaching Mathematics and Science is offered at Northside Intermediate School, and 4th and 5th grade students visit class each week to learn new math lessons taught by our candidates.”

Geist, E. (2009). Children are Born Mathematicians: Supporting Development in Young Children, (1st ed., pp. 398). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Thanks to your support, the year 2017 has been one of growth and innovation for the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival. We continue our expansion and fulfillment of our mission to bring the joy and beauty of mathematics to as many students as we can, through non-competitive extra-curricular mathematics activities.