campus day

Today was Campus Day at the University of Waterloo. Campus Day is a day for high school students to check out the University and talk to faculty staff and students. Five years ago, I was that high school student. So I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer and talk to the students about my experiences. Naturally, I volunteered at the Math/Computer Science/Bioinformatics booth. Here's a picture of the shirt student volunteers get.

Pink? Yeah Pink. Mathies at waterloo have this pink tie thing going on...long story I guess. Also, some schools or faculties have cool mascots/symbols like lions/tigers etc. Our symbol is the natural log (a tree log). I guess you have to know a bit of math to get it.

Anyway, here's a list of observations from today:

• There weren't as many people there, particularly at the Computer Science booth or talks. When I was there as a high school student, I remember it being really packed. There were, however, more people at the Software Engineering booth.
• I had some really good conversations with a few kids and parents. They really drilled me, but I was happy to answer with all my experiences.
• I got to hang out with some profs which I never do. That was interesting. I also got to talk with parents/students with them. I found that they never had direct answers for questions. They danced around and often brought up theory and junk. So I'd often have to interrupt with my answer before these parents and kids fall asleep
• I had a good time and I'm glad I got a chance to give back a little

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Other math notes: March 14 has two significant aspects: it was Pi day and "6 years 9 months". I'll let you figure those out.