Southern’s Mathematics Department recently hosted nearly 300 high school students from over 20 local schools for the annual Mathematical Puzzle Program (MaPP) Challenge. The MaPP challenge is a puzzle hunt (a combination of a scavenger hunt and escape room) based on contemporary mathematical research topics. The challenge exposes students to the conceptual ideas of upper-level college math courses to beat the game.
The MaPP Challenge was first run at Southern in 2016 with five teams from four schools totaling 33 students. This slowly grew to 16 teams totaling 114 student in 2019. After the pandemic caused the event to be suspended in 2020 and 2021, it returned in 2022 and has now grown to include 38 teams from the following high schools:
- Bethel High School
- Bunnell High School
- Cheshire High School
- East Haven High School
- East Windsor High School
- ESUMUS
- Francis T. Maloney High School
- Hamden Hall Country Day School
- Hill Regional Career High School
- Masuk High School
- Naugatuck High School
- Nonnewaug High School
- Orville H. Platt High School
- Pomeraug High School
- Sacred Heart Academy
- Sheehan
- Stratford High School
- The Gilbert School
- Six to Six Magnet School
To see more about the event, visit “Students solve escape room-style math equations at SCSU.” (WTNH, Ken Houston, March 13, 2024).
