Exploring the Human Side of Math

As it has been long been taught, mathematics has an unfortunate reputation as an almost inhumane discipline: cold, austere, abstract. This is partly due to a dominant method of teaching that separates mathematics from its historical context and, following the example set by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, presents the subject in an orderly, deductive package.

But as modern mathematician Francis Su writes, it is “impossible to separate the proper practice of mathematics from what it means to be human.”

Math was not handed down from on high, as if from God to Moses, fully formed and complete. Instead, despite standards of proof that are certainly different from many other disciplines, mathematical progress looks like progress elsewhere: halting, nonlinear, five steps forward and three back, attained through experimentation and conjecture before tidy proof.

Unfortunately, this messier, more experimental and human version of mathematics is hard to fit into a standard university mathematics classroom. This is where getting students involved in mathematical research offers a unique experience of the human side of mathematics. Under the mentorship of seasoned faculty, students get to ask and explore their own mathematical questions and see how their mathematical work develops as a result of their own decisions and insights. Students and faculty also experience the joy of exploring a mathematical question together—the collaborative relationship that develops is–by dint of its one-on-one nature and the sheer amount of time spent thinking together about the same problem–deeper than what can develop in a classroom setting.

In recent years, it’s been my goal to involve students in research relatively early in their mathematical careers by selecting accessible projects and reaching out to students to encourage them to apply (it is often the case that students who are good candidates for research do not realize they are!). Early exposure to research at Dordt University leaves time for students who enjoy it to apply for additional summer opportunities elsewhere, which in turn builds connections to possible graduate programs and offers exposure to other areas of mathematics.

As one example, Anika Homan’s research experience at Dordt in 2021 enabled off-campus opportunities in 2022 and 2023, which bolstered her successful applications for the Goldwater scholarship, the NSF-GRFP, and a graduate program in mathematical logic. Similarly, Jocelyn (Zonnefeld) Garcia’s Dordt research experiences established a springboard to research at Northwestern University and a Ph.D. program in computational biology.

In both examples, the specific research questions explored at Dordt ended up not being directly relevant to the work done at off-campus research experiences, or to Anika and Jocelyn’s Ph.D. programs.

But the skills gained absolutely were.

This is perhaps best exemplified by one of my first research students, Jason Vander Woude. Jason was an electrical engineering and computer science major, with a math minor. In addition to some statistical genetics research, he joined my first undergraduate research project in summer 2017. He and his research partner were extremely productive, and our work together resulted in a peer-reviewed publication. This in turn played a role in his choice of Ph.D. program at the intersection of mathematics and computer science. Despite his undergraduate engineering degree, his dissertation was largely in pure mathematics, and he now works in research at Sandia National Laboratory.

In summer 2024, two colleagues and I supervised two undergraduate students new to research. The students got to experience the messy, human side of math in all its wonder, and develop new insights into combinatorial game theory. Regardless of where God calls them vocationally, the experience of being presented with a novel, open-ended problem, breaking it down into manageable pieces, independently working to solve it, and presenting their work to a wide audience will serve them well. It is also my hope that their vision of service in God’s Kingdom was enlarged in the process.

After all, even abstract mathematics is an important way to better understand and marvel at the beauty and intricacy of God’s creation.