Math division’s “Problem of the Week” — The Kenyon Collegian

Every different week, a quiet however thrilling custom performs out in Kenyon’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics: One intriguing drawback is distributed by electronic mail and posted on-line on the division web page, by way of Noah Aydin’s web site, inviting college students to deal with a formidable problem throughout which they’re inspired to train their inventive and analytical muscle tissue. It’s the long-running “Problem of the Week,” a departmental contest that Professor of Mathematics Noah Aydin has overseen for greater than twenty years; it carries some significance that, he believes, extends far past the bounds of arithmetic itself.

“Problem solving is an important quality of mind for a liberal-educated person,” Aydin defined in an interview with the Collegian. “We want our students to be problem solvers. And this is just one aspect, or one dimension, of solving problems. … Problems that require ingenuity.”

The format is easy. Every two weeks, a brand new problem is shared, and college students are inspired to submit totally worked-out options. Once the submission window closes, solutions are verified, and an accurate response is randomly chosen to obtain a $15 present certificates to the bookstore. But, as Aydin was fast to level out, “The real prize is the satisfaction of solving a challenging math problem.”

Although math majors are effectively represented among the many contestants, the competition is just not restricted to them. According to Aydin, college students in different disciplines, workers members at Kenyon and even some alumni — who nonetheless get pleasure from tackling the issues lengthy after incomes their levels — have entered the competition. “It is always nice to receive solutions from students who graduated many years ago,” Aydin stated. “They keep in touch — this is one way of keeping in touch with former students.”

While guidelines require college students to unravel issues on their very own, the competition nonetheless builds an unparalleled sense of neighborhood amongst drawback solvers, linking members throughout completely different class years, educational backgrounds and time zones.

What surprises Aydin most is the progressive approaches in pupil responses. “Sometimes I see really creative solutions, ingenious solutions, and that tells me something about the student I didn’t know,” he stated. “The way you solve a problem, a challenging problem, in creative ways, tells you a lot about the student that you may not know, especially if you don’t have that student in your class.”

Creating the issues, nonetheless, is a time-consuming job in itself. Aydin attracts concepts from problem-solving books, private expertise and sometimes invents new issues of his personal. “Trying to come up with good problems — it is not an easy thing,” he stated. “Trying to come up with a problem that is not insanely difficult, not so easy, and interesting at the same time. A lot of times I tell my students: Coming up with good questions is often more interesting and useful than answering them.”

The contest provides extra than simply particular person successes; it additionally rewards consistency over time. Throughout the 12 months, Aydin data the variety of right options every participant submits. The pupil with the very best quantity is acknowledged on the division’s spring awards ceremony with the respect of “Best Problem Solver.”

To college students who would possibly really feel hesitant about making an attempt, Aydin provides reassuring recommendation: “There is nothing to lose. Just give it a try. … It is a totally private thing. … If you succeed, great. If not, you still learn. … It is not always the end result that matters; it is the process. Learning is a process. It happens internally, in your mind. You should not care about what other people think about it.”

In our modern period that usually values fast solutions and utter confidence, the “Problem of the Week” gives a refreshing different in addition to a possibility to decelerate, assume deeply and delight within the problem of tackling a troublesome drawback. As Aydin put it, “Math is amazing. It is both an essential tool to understand the world, and it’s also a form of art. This is more like an ‘art’ aspect of math. And as liberal-educated people, we should have an appreciation [for] the artistic part of mathematics and problem solving — creative problem solving.”

Perhaps that’s the largest takeaway: By working by means of a rigorously curated drawback, college students have interaction in additional than simply arithmetic. They are cultivating curiosity, perseverance and reflective problem-solving abilities that lie on the coronary heart of a liberal arts training.