This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Have you ever watched "Mean Girls"? It's one of the movies before Lindsey Lohan really began to let her career slip. She plays Cady, a smart girl, homeschooled by her parents as they lived in Africa until her high school years, where, desperate to fit in AND to "get the guy", she dumbs down her math ability. She redeems herself in the end, as you can see in this clip (but not without a lot of stereotypes coming into play) by joining the math team and using her abilities.
This was the very first thing I thought about as I ran across the following series of videos called "Math Warriors", which has everything one could ever want in a mini-series; a plot, great dialog, characters you can get to know, a love triangle (ooooh!) and of course, MATH!
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Here is the Season 3 Trailer
and the second episode of season 3 adds a bit of beauty pageant fun mixed in with mathematics competition:
(and many of you probably remember the spoof on the evolution question asked of Miss America pageant contestants called Should Math Be Taught In Schools)
The internet is an incredible place. Mini-series that may never find a home on a television network can reach a particular niche audience quite successfully! And here we see a group of students aiming high in college mathematics competitions!
I ran across the Math Warriors Kickstarter project in January. Math Warriors is the brainchild and labor of love of Kristina Harris. Her Kickstarter Project, which exceeeded its goal, was to help her and her team continue to produce this series. You can learn a lot more about Kristina and her project at the Kickstarter blog!
Kristina Harris has a background in film but received her PhD in Biochemistry, giving her a unique perspective from which to create her video series. The actors in the series are not mathematicians, but legitimate actors. They have to learn the jargon and terminology and all of the problems are checked through by Kristina's mathematician husband, and sometimes eminent math professors make cameos in the series!
If you want to learn and watch more, check out Kristina's youtube page to watch the entire series and, of course you can also follow them on twitter and like them on Facebook!
Watch a few episodes and let us know what you think!
