CAMP Reunion 2024

Today was a very special day in Bard Math CAMP history – the very first CAMP reunion! CAMP alumni/ae, staff members, parents, and friends gathered in the lobby of the Reem-Kayden Center once again for a selection of math games and puzzles – old favorites like Ghost Blitz and the Towers of Hanoi, along with some fun new challenges like Tantrix (How can you use all the hexagonal tiles to make a blue loop? A red loop? What about a yellow loop?).

A table full of math puzzles was the perfect place for former CAMPers to reunite with old friends and to hear about what everyone’s been up – from aerospace research and a hackathon for data science to full-time jobs in tech.

Next, everyone trekked over to the dilapidated dodecahedron – a mysterious, nearly invisible sculpture in front of the math building – to try and make it pop out while discussing what its mathematical structure might be – a stellated dodecahedron? The dual of a truncated icosahedron?

Finally, the former CAMPers & co. retired from the heat into the musty shade of Preston Theater for a math movie night of sorts – we all piled into the velvet folding seats to watch Secrets of the Surface: The Mathematical Vision of Maryam Mirzakhani on the big screen.

The day was full of sunshine, laughs, and healthy dose of CAMP nostalgia. Just like math puzzles and do-decorating, the reunion is sure to become a new CAMP tradition – where past, present, and future CAMPers can come together and celebrate their shared love of all things mathematical.

Japheth Wood

I’m Japheth Wood (he/him), the Bard Math CAMP co-director, and a math professor at Bard College. CAMP (which is an acronym for Creative and Analytical Math Program) is a very special week of the year for our young math community. It's inspiring to see our students return year after year. This is our 11th summer of CAMP! We're back once again on the idyllic Bard College campus in Annandale-on-Hudson, and thankful to the CAMP students, parents, and staff, for making this mathemagical week happen. Notably, we've (finally) had our first CAMP reunion this past June, an event that I know will grow to be an integral part of what we do.

This will close in 20 seconds

Frances Stern

My name is Frances Stern (she/her/hers)! I’ve been teaching math at CAMP since the first year, making sure our math theme has a connection to art and computer. It’s fun to show students math that they don’t see in school. I've retired from daily teaching but continue to teach for the New York Math Circle & students who are seeking more math in their lives. My hobbies include learning to draw, paint, & juggle, reading, walking & folk dancing. I’ve written 2 books for teachers and parents called “Adding Math, Subtracting Tension” (for different age-ranges of children). They pay as much attention to how to keep out of a fight (what many parents told me is a problem) as they do to math.

This will close in 20 seconds