For last decade, Miami alumna’s high school students get inside look at Miami
Judy Brown ’82, a longtime collaborator with several faculty members, brings students to university classrooms for the day
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Published
Judy Brown '82, third from left, brought a group of National Trail High School students to Miami University to meet with Miami faculty members and students, as well as with President Gregory Crawford and University Ambassador Dr. Renate Crawford. (Photo by Scott Kissell)
For last decade, Miami alumna’s high school students get inside look at Miami
•
Published
Was Edgar Allan Poe a mathematician?
That simple query, posed in response to Poe’s legendary short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” rekindled the relationship between Judy Brown ’82 and her alma mater.
For a decade, Brown has brought a group of her National Trail students to Miami University for a day where they visit with classes, sit in on labs, and eat lunch on campus.
Brown’s latest troop of seven pre-calculus students stopped at Miami on March 18 where their day began, appropriately enough, at Kreger Hall’s Foucault Pendulum to hear from Miami President Gregory Crawford and University Ambassador Dr. Renate Crawford.
“We’re kind of like a family. I get to tell the students stories from when I was here,” said Brown, who was named the 2024 District 3 Ohio Teacher of the Year. “It’s just like a day out with your family.”
More than a decade ago, Brown and Todd Edwards, Miami’s Virginia Todd Memorial Scholar of Mathematics Education, collaborated on an article entitled, “Is Edgar Allan Poe Really a Mathematician?” The paper focused on Poe’s 1842 short story about a prisoner during the Spanish Inquisition.
Poe’s character is trapped in a cell, where he uses math to survive the various dangers of his situation, including a razor-edged pendulum.
The conclusion of the paper? “We derived the formula for the pendulum and put in the numbers, and the prisoner has six-tenths of a second to escape. So we decided he is a mathematician,” Brown said.
This year’s National Trail students sat in on a Physics classroom and two labs set up by Paul Urayama, professor and chair of Physics. Following a lunch at MapleStreet Dining Commons, they participated in Jeffrey Wanko’s pre-service mathematics teacher’s classroom. Jennifer Blue, professor and associate dean of Physics, also helps organize the visits.
Wanko, professor of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry, said the trip benefits his students as well since the two groups come together on an extended problem-solving activity.
“They get to work with high school students in a classroom setting,” Wanko said. “It’s really a great opportunity. Judy’s been a lot of fun to work with, and it’s really helped to push some of my own thinking as well. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.”
Added Brown: “It’s really blossomed into a full day of math and physics.”
Like Brown, Wanko also graduated from Miami (Class of 1988), and they shared some of the same professors as students.
Brown and Wanko have also collaborated on research projects and presented together at conferences.
“It’s really been a great working relationship,” Wanko said.
The number of students varies from 7-12 each year, Brown said, and typically at least one of those students eventually enrolls at Miami.
This year marks the final trip for Brown, though, as she is retiring at the conclusion of the school year. An author of six books on mathematics, Brown also produced 1,300 math-related videos. The books were written with the help of her late son, Ethan, who was a longterm substitute teacher at National Trail.
Brown’s books are used in Sri Lanka, India, Africa, and more.
“They really helped me through losing our son,” Brown said of her students. “He helped me write those books. I wrote, he typed. I did the videos and he uploaded everything.”
Brown, the District 3 Representative for the Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics, has presented at hundreds of workshops at the local, state, and national levels.
While at Miami, Brown received the Christofferson Award of Excellence as an undergraduate student-teacher and served as the undergraduate representative on the search committee to select a new chair of Mathematics. Brown’s husband, Eric, is also a Miami graduate. The Browns have been a Miami Merger for 39 years and have received the Miami valentine all those years.
“It’s a calling,” Brown said of teaching. “It’s a passion.”
That simple query, posed in response to Poe’s legendary short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” rekindled the relationship between Judy Brown ’82 and her alma mater.
For a decade, Brown has brought a group of her National Trail students to Miami University for a day where they visit with classes, sit in on labs, and eat lunch on campus.
Brown’s latest troop of seven pre-calculus students stopped at Miami on March 18 where their day began, appropriately enough, at Kreger Hall’s Foucault Pendulum to hear from Miami President Gregory Crawford and University Ambassador Dr. Renate Crawford.
“We’re kind of like a family. I get to tell the students stories from when I was here,” said Brown, who was named the 2024 District 3 Ohio Teacher of the Year. “It’s just like a day out with your family.”
More than a decade ago, Brown and Todd Edwards, Miami’s Virginia Todd Memorial Scholar of Mathematics Education, collaborated on an article entitled, “Is Edgar Allan Poe Really a Mathematician?” The paper focused on Poe’s 1842 short story about a prisoner during the Spanish Inquisition.
Poe’s character is trapped in a cell, where he uses math to survive the various dangers of his situation, including a razor-edged pendulum.
The conclusion of the paper? “We derived the formula for the pendulum and put in the numbers, and the prisoner has six-tenths of a second to escape. So we decided he is a mathematician,” Brown said.
This year’s National Trail students sat in on a Physics classroom and two labs set up by Paul Urayama, professor and chair of Physics. Following a lunch at MapleStreet Dining Commons, they participated in Jeffrey Wanko’s pre-service mathematics teacher’s classroom. Jennifer Blue, professor and associate dean of Physics, also helps organize the visits.
Wanko, professor of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry, said the trip benefits his students as well since the two groups come together on an extended problem-solving activity.
“They get to work with high school students in a classroom setting,” Wanko said. “It’s really a great opportunity. Judy’s been a lot of fun to work with, and it’s really helped to push some of my own thinking as well. It’s a win-win for everybody involved.”
Added Brown: “It’s really blossomed into a full day of math and physics.”
Like Brown, Wanko also graduated from Miami (Class of 1988), and they shared some of the same professors as students.
Brown and Wanko have also collaborated on research projects and presented together at conferences.
“It’s really been a great working relationship,” Wanko said.
The number of students varies from 7-12 each year, Brown said, and typically at least one of those students eventually enrolls at Miami.
This year marks the final trip for Brown, though, as she is retiring at the conclusion of the school year. An author of six books on mathematics, Brown also produced 1,300 math-related videos. The books were written with the help of her late son, Ethan, who was a longterm substitute teacher at National Trail.
Brown’s books are used in Sri Lanka, India, Africa, and more.
“They really helped me through losing our son,” Brown said of her students. “He helped me write those books. I wrote, he typed. I did the videos and he uploaded everything.”
Brown, the District 3 Representative for the Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics, has presented at hundreds of workshops at the local, state, and national levels.
While at Miami, Brown received the Christofferson Award of Excellence as an undergraduate student-teacher and served as the undergraduate representative on the search committee to select a new chair of Mathematics. Brown’s husband, Eric, is also a Miami graduate. The Browns have been a Miami Merger for 39 years and have received the Miami valentine all those years.
“It’s a calling,” Brown said of teaching. “It’s a passion.”
Established in 1809, Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, with regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, a learning center in West Chester, and a European study center in Luxembourg.
