Having Fun with Math

Kids are having fun with math this summer.

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At Utah Valley University, 40 students have been finding out that math can be fun.

“We created it because we had seen a lot of negative math attitudes,” camp director Roxanne Brinkerhoff said. “We had seen a lot of people coming to us really hating math.”

Bad attitudes about math tend to start at early ages, so the university is targeting the youngest students.

“We created this camp as a place where they could come and learn about the fun, interesting life applications of math,” Brinkerhoff said. “They have this conception that it is all algebra and numbers. There are some things that are interesting and not algebra heavy. It is interesting for them to see how it impacts our world.”

One of the projects that the camp staff has chosen is rocket launching.

“The kids love anything that explodes,” Brinkerhoff said. “We build rockets the last half hour of every day. We talk about optimization of angles, how to put tail fins on to make it go farther. We predict where the rocket is going to land.”