Ciencias 2019

BAMM attended Ciencias 2019. The event, organized by the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), is OSU’s Annual Diversity in STEM Networking Event.

We had the opportunity to connect with underrepresented minority STEM students and professionals at Ohio State. The attendees enjoyed math by engaging in solving puzzles on our table.

Cole, an Earth Sciences graduate student, said he experienced the “aha!” moment when he figured out a way of solving a puzzle. The puzzle consists of 4 knights on a 3 by 3 chessboard, two black knights on the corners of one side of the board, and two white ones on the corners of the opposing side. The goal is to move the pieces until the black ones are where the white ones were in the beginning, and vice versa. Of course the pieces can only be moved following chess rules: the knight moves tracing an “L”, to a square that is two squares away horizontally and one square vertically, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally.

Cole has almost given up when he saw it. He said “All pieces move in the same way, so we can circle them around until we reach 4 knights on a 3 by 3 chessboard.the desired configuration”. And he did it! Then his friend came and solved the puzzle in a different way. He then experienced a second “aha!” moment.

Other attendees solved the tangram and the soma cube. We loved sharing our passion for math with OSU students, faculty, and staff from different departments.

BAMM strives to be an inclusive program. Some of our activities target specific underrepresented minorities and most of them offer bilingual support (English/Spanish).

Anamorphic Art – Mathematics behind the Illusions

On Saturday the Department of Mathematics received a group of female high school students to learn about using math to create anamorphic art. The workshop was taught by Anna Davis, Ph.D., from Ohio Dominican University.Drawing of a cube appears like floating thanks to an anamorphic effect.

The word anamorphosis refers to a distorted projection or drawing which appears normal when viewed from a particular point or with a suitable mirror or lens. Anamorphosis has become increasingly popular in art, especially in street art.

Led by Prof. Davis, students drew anamorphic projections aided by a laser and further explored them using GeoGebra. They also wrote functions to create an anamorphic version of a “normal” drawing. Finally, they had time to create their own anamorphic art.

This event is part of a long term project that includes monthly workshops and a summer camp. The project Girls Exploring Math invites young women to experience mathematics through engaging activities in an untraditional environment, and seeks to attract women to pursue careers in math.