The Florida State University Department of Mathematics welcomed K-12 students, their families and members of the Tallahassee community last week for the 10th annual Math Fun Day, an event demonstrating how math exists in exciting ways all around us, far beyond what we see in worksheets and homework.
Math Fun Day, which is free and open to the public, invites attendees to take part in various hands-on activities and engaging demonstrations that derive from mathematical theories and practices.
This year’s event, held Saturday, Feb. 1, in the Love Building on FSU’s main campus, was conducted in partnership with the FSU Festival of the Creative Arts, a month-long campus-wide collaborative festival highlighting varied areas of research and creativity.
“Math Fun Day has a lot of hands-on opportunities, visuals and exciting activities to show that math is a lot of fun,” said Monica Hurdal, Math Fun Day director, biomathematics professor and associate chair for academic affairs in FSU’s mathematics department. “At the event, people are often surprised to see how each activity relates to mathematics. Encouraging students to think this way and change their perspective on math is so enjoyable.”
Math Fun Day is structured as an open house with different attractions set in 10 activity rooms. From exploring polygons through computer programming, creating fractals or highlighting the impact of women in mathematics, this year’s activity rooms covered wide-ranging educational topics. Attendees also created bubbles, learned about snails and took part in a newly introduced scavenger hunt.
“One of the activity rooms we had this year was a math-in-nature room, which showcased where you might find math in nature, art and music,” Hurdal said. “This room also introduced students to mathematical patterns that frequently occur in nature, such as the famous Fibonacci sequence and spiral.”
These activities and demonstrations help students understand valuable mathematical topics, while sparking their interest to learn.
“My kids are always looking forward to Math Fun Day,” said Megan Ross, who attended the event with her three children. “Every year, my kids get very excited to try the different activities. All of the Math Fun Day staff are incredibly engaging, especially with the younger kids, which makes them excited to learn new things.”
More than 100 volunteers comprising faculty, staff, student volunteers and student organizations — including the Society of Undergraduate Mathematical Students, the Association for Women in Mathematics chapter at FSU and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics chapter at FSU — came together to ensure Math Fun Day’s success.
The event also provided FSU students the chance to take on a leadership role in mathematics outreach.
“This year we brought back an idea I introduced for last year’s event, which is drawing series and sequences on the blackboard for students to decode,” said Chris Ryzowicz, the student coordinator for the mathematical games room and third-year biomathematics doctoral candidate. “Some of the students were stumped while others worked through the series in a few minutes. My favorite part of Math Fun Day is getting to see the gears turn inside the students’ heads as they try and figure things out.”
To learn more about Math Fun Day 2025, visit math.fsu.edu/MathFunDay.