Start Digging! A mathematical comedy in two acts
featuring Aaron Fenyes

On February 26nd, we scheduled a talk with the fictional "Dr. Giovanna Bigollo". Aaron Fenyes, with deft theater skills rarely seen in a graduate student of mathematics, impersonated her lazy assistant-- determined to "waste" an hour's worth of the students' time with seemingly impossible mathematical tasks. The students were assigned the kind of tedious work that you can investigate in the linked worksheets below:

Yet after a while, patterns began to emerge in all of the worksheets. This wasn't just busywork designed to waste time... there were really interesting patterns and mathematical truths buried deep in the worksheets! The rest of the meeting, we explored these interesting patterns, and the students had the opportunity to present and explain their discoveries to the whole group.

Printable version of the flyer

Videos from the talk: Aaron Fenyes, substitute teacher for "Dr. Bigollo", February 26, 2012

Here are some pictures from the talk. Right click and select 'view image' to see it larger.