Stimulating STEM education on Maui | Department of Mathematics

Giving back to Maui keiki was at the heart of an educational trip to the Valley Isle by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Mathematics faculty members and graduate students.

people standing and kneeling playing board games — Jack Johnson playing a game with a young participant.

Professor Monique Chyba, Associate Professor Yuriy Mileyko and Assistant Professor Chuang Xu, with graduate students Alan Tong and Sam Glickman, visited Nāpili Noho, a community based emergency distribution hub at Nāpili Park that is helping those affected by the devastating Lahaina wildfire. They conducted math activities during a Christmas carnival-style event held on December 16.

people working on math problems — Ninth and 10th graders learning about graph theory.

Prior to their visit to West Maui, the UH Mānoa team interacted with about 40 high school students (grades 9–11) at UH Maui College. The students are part of TRiO Upward Bound, an engaging educational program that prepares low-income, first-generation high school students for college. The Maui students learned about graph theory, which is the study of graphs, that has cutting-edge applications such as social and traffic networks, optimal routing for emergency response, and molecular epidemiology.

people sitting in a class — Assistant Professor Chuang Xu teaching Upward Bound students about the Fleury’s algorithm.

This effort is part of a RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation on trauma-informed STEM education. Chyba and Mileyko are co-principal investigators on the grant

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