Mathematics is not just numbers. Behind this science there is a fascinating world that can be discovered in a different way in the El Bosque University Mathematics Laboratory Museumin Bogotá. It is a space created for students of all majors and even from different educational institutions in the city.
Mónica Barón, coordinator and leader of the project, says that the idea was born with two objectives. The first and most important, “to show everyone the beauty that exists behind mathematics and not necessarily to the people who are directly interested, but to involve students from other careers and even those from city schools and to present to them, in a recreational way, that mathematics goes beyond what they can appreciate.”
The second objective is “that have a relationship with students in the university’s mathematics programbecause this space allows them to explore what lies behind mathematics and carry out research activities.”
This place was born in a small classroom in the Block B building of the university, where mathematics students met from time to time, but little by little it grew and became important, to the point that today it already has three adjacent classrooms and became the Mathematics Laboratory Museum, of which El Bosque University is very proud.
“Here It has different sections associated with fields of mathematics. One of them has to do with the recreational part, with games such as origami and the abacus, and others that are associated with the relationship with mathematics, in addition to areas of knowledge such as physics.”
Barón’s work has been joined by mathematics teachers and other teachers who are excited about the possibility of carrying out different projects, such as a Lego machine that was developed by one of them. But we also “carry out activities and tours in the schools, together with the teachers and students of the Mathematics program,” said the leader of this space.
Although the coordinator recognized that when talking about mathematics the topic generally produces fear and even laziness, “when it is shown that they are everywhere, in games and even in magic tricks, perception changes and students realize “Keep in mind that it is not a boring space.”
With the students of the mathematics program it is different, because “when they are here, exploring, what they are looking for is to find how to take those games to formality. It’s like cracking puzzles, analyzing objects and discovering what properties they have and, from those, assigning them to mathematical objects. Any game that one imagines, Triqui or Rubik’s Cube, has a mathematical depthand when there is that approach the important thing is to understand how it works,” Barón highlighted.
Beyond the academy
Mathematics can be seen in different ways, but the truth is that it is beneficial to humanity and is involved in almost everything we do on a daily basis. “There are mathematical objects that are not as well known as fractals, which are self-similar figures that repeat themselves and that if you zoom in on them they continue to look like the same thing. It’s like a tree, if I look at a branch it’s like I’m looking at a small tree and the same thing happens with a smaller branch,” he explained.
For the directive, this concept is very useful in medical issues, since many parts of the body behave like fractals, including cancer cells. Hence the importance of this information, which can be used in other areas of knowledge. “In fact, Mathematics is very transversal and allows connection with any area of knowledge and art. We see it in artistic creations and in activities such as dance, since the movements have a mathematical behavior that can be analyzed,” said Barón.
But perhaps one of the most important things is that “the Museum is a space for university mathematics students, because there they can increase or enhance the skills they have and, in a certain way, externalize all that knowledge and show the people how wonderful that world is. Here we are forming our team for the next Olympics, which will surely make many contributions to the program.”
