OSU hosts inaugural Math Adventure Camp for local school-age kids

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Media Contact: Elizabeth Gosney | CAS Marketing and Communications Manager | 405-744-7497 | egosney@okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University hosted its first Math Adventure Camp this summer, bringing together 38 school-age children for three days of mathematical activities that included lectures, games, small-group classes and a mock MATHCOUNTS countdown competition. 

"The goal of this camp is to provide educational and entertaining math activities to students in the Stillwater community, and to inspire the students in mathematical understanding," said Dr. Xu Zhang, OSU Department of Mathematics associate professor.

Zhang, along with fellow faculty members Drs. Ye Liang and Sean Curry, organized the event and served as instructors of camp courses, which included algebra, geometry and probability. They also had the help of several teaching assistants who ran several activities. 

Camp participants, who ranged in grades from 5th to 10th, had the chance to interact with current OSU math students as well as guest speakers Dr. Jay Schweig and Dr. Lisa Mantini of OSU’s math department and Dr. Frank Wang and Tony Cornforth from the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics.

While this was the first year for OSU’s Math Adventure Camp — made possible in part by support from a Mathematical Association of America INTEGRATE Initiative grant — Zhang plans to offer the camp again next summer.

“It was incredibly rewarding to see students actively engaged in a variety of activities over the three-day math camp,” Zhang said. “Through this camp and other year-round math programs we organize, such as the Stillwater Middle School Math Club, I hope to foster a more vibrant culture of mathematics learning in the Stillwater community.”