Our Mission
"The Washington Student Math Association is a student-driven organization
dedicated to promoting the uses and purposes of math that are not generally covered
in the current school curriculum. The Washington Student Math Association will accomplish
this mission through the advocacy of alternative uses of math and the provision
of assistance in the startup and improvement of local math clubs."
If there is one unifying aspect of
today's world, it is math. With the rise and continued growth of the Information
Age, modern mathematics plays an essential role in not only technology and engineering,
but in other career fields as well. At the root of many occupations lie the inherent
logical relationships and problem solving tools that are key components of math.
With the multitude of applications
that exist for math in today's society, there is understandably an inclination
for math to be defined as simply a collection of numbers and logical relationships.
However, we firmly believe that math consists of not just practical and textbook
purposes, but creative and expressive uses as well.
"There is nothing as dreamy and poetic, nothing as radical, subversive, and
psychedelic, as mathematics."
- Paul Lockhart (A Mathematician's Lament)
The Washington Student Math Association
aims to raise awareness of the many other purposes of math that exist beyond the
practical and the occupational. In doing so, we hope not only to increase awareness
of the variety of benefits that math has in modern society, but to promote interest
amongst students for the creative aspects of problem solving as well.
