News & Announcements

The 2023 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)® and the 2023 Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM)® problems are now available. Click here to learn more.

The Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) is pleased to announce the results of the 2022 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM)® and the 2022 Middle Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MidMCM) Click here to learn more.

Could These Bones Be Amelia Earhart’s? This modeling in this module involves using statistical techniques to predict human height from bone lengths. Mathematical tools include unit conversion, slopes of lines, equations of lines from two points, fitting a line to data (least squares), and coefficient of correlation (r²). Click here to learn more.

COMAP’s bookstore offers all of our “for sale” products from the Teachers College Mathematical Modeling Handbook to our Discrete Mathematics: Modeling Our World and Precalculus: Modeling Our World textbooks. Click here to learn more.

Please join COMAP at the Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM) Jan 4-7, 2023, at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, Boston Marriott Hotel, and Boston Sheraton Hotel. Please stop by Booth# 217. Click here to learn more

Contest registration is NOW OPEN for the modeling contests: Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)® and The Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM)®.  Contests to be conducted February 16-20, 2023.  Click Here to sign up for the MCM or ICM!

There are many situations in which we are required to make choices, either individually or collectively. For example, when we vote, we hope to achieve fair results. The mathematics of social choice can be used to characterize and compare different voting systems, and to measure what we mean by "fairness." What is a good way for a group to make a democratic decision? Click here to learn more.

Modeling Packaging: This module’s context is modeling product packaging and determining measures of efficiency for packaging designs. The mathematical tools used include basic percentages and ratios, area and volume, similar triangles, parallel and perpendicular lines, and regular polygons. Click here to learn more.

We hope you enjoy our new look with improved navigation to help you find all that COMAP has to offer from math and modeling resources to contest opportunities. We value your opinion and so let us know what you think. And, while you’re at it, sign up for our new FREE educator or student membership, or for our Full Access Membership.

Now with all digital content in Macmillan Learning’s Achieve, For All Practical Purposes emphasizes the connections between contemporary mathematics and modern society. Long a foundational text in the development of the liberal arts mathematics course, its  distinctive style introduces students to real math applications without simply listing equations and asking students to crunch numbers—practice is geared toward understanding what these equations do and what they can reveal. For All Practical Purposes seeks to engage those students who tend to be wary or disinterested in math courses and to show them both the usefulness of these math concepts and the beauty of math as applied in the world around us.

Someone once said that there is no history, only memory. In order to set a historical context for this paper I need to take a trip down memory lane and talk about the beginning of the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)®. In late 1984, Ben Fusaro came to me with the idea for a modeling competition. I no longer remember the original formulation of the idea, but the basics were there: a team competition for undergraduates who would work on an open-ended problem for an extended period of time and be allowed to use any inanimate resources, assuming they were appropriately cited. In other words, you just couldn’t ask a non-team member how to solve the problem.

A mathematics trail is a walk to discover mathematics. A math trail can be almost anywhere—a neighborhood, a business district or shopping mall, a park, a zoo, a library, even a government building. A free downloadable guide from The Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications reviews the history of math trails and discusses their attributes, including the practical issues of organization and logistics in setting up and maintaining a math trail. The guide also discusses the mathematical issues in choosing and describing math problems and tasks along a trail and describes a variety of examples. The math trail guide points to places where walkers can formulate, discuss, and solve interesting math problems. Math trails offer opportunities of making and using connections among mathematical ideas, recognizing and applying mathematics in contexts outside of math class, communicating mathematical thinking to others clearly, and analyzing and evaluating the mathematical thinking and strategies of others.