Departmental Events
Latest Happenings
“The Impact of Yoga on Math Anxiety” (Honors School Research Conference)
April 25, 2025
This project looked at the correlation between physical activity, specifically yoga, and students’ anxiety in their math class. The research objective was to determine if yoga reduces stress and anxiety and increases self-confidence in a mathematics classroom, specifically in first year Monmouth University math courses. Students portrayed their feelings towards their mathematics class on a pre-activity survey, completed a short yoga session, and then answered the same questions on a post-activity survey. The yoga poses selected were those which focus on breathing and self-calming techniques. It was found that yoga made students less apprehensive about their upcoming math courses, assignments and exams. Many participants illustrated their dislike towards math, but expressed how the yoga session made them feel relaxed and more open to learning math. This project can help create generalized ideas discussing if and/or how yoga and physical activity can change students’ confidence in math. This project can also lead to further studies on how physical activity in an educational classroom can affect students in different disciplines. Mathematics is not liked by many, so exploring different ways to engage students and interest them in learning math is important.
Math and Statistics Students Present at the Annual School of Science Research Conference
April 18, 2025
Alexander Metz (Business-Stats Minor), Anthony Stirone (Math/Statistics), Olivia Fowles (Biology), and Brandon Govea (Math/Statistics), and worked with Richard Bastian, Ph.D. (Mathematics), and Jason Adolf, Ph.D. (Biology-MEBP), on a statistical analysis of water quality in coastal lakes in Monmouth County. Their data came from citizen scientists who voluntarily took water samples and remotely entered their measurements. The team found significant differences between seasons and between some of the lakes during those seasons. The team was awarded best Mathematics poster in the School of Science Research Conference in April 2025.
Matt Mueller (MA/Stat), Malea Horn-Attanasio (MA/Stat) and Sarah Henry (Biology-Stat Minor) worked with Dr. Hillary Delprete (History and Anthropology) and Dr. Richard Bastian (Mathematics) on a statistical analysis of skeletal data over time. Titled “Pelvic Morphology Over Time,” their analysis looked for significant differences in a populations’ pelvic measurements before, during and after a period of political turmoil and social stress.
Vincent Macri (MA/CS) and Jason Sullivan (MA) worked with Dr. Pedram Daneshgar (Biology-MEBP) and Dr Richard Bastian (Mathematics) on an analysis of temperature variations due to different ecological conditions at terrapin nesting sites. Since temperature determines the sex of the terrapin, this study could have implications for future terrapin populations.
Jason French (MA/SE) and Felipe Marcal (MA) worked with Dr Torrey Gallagher (Mathematics) on using deviations in theoretical orbital data to detect the presence of unknown bodies in a star system. In particular, if you live on a planet that is seemingly alone in its star system, but your planet’s orbit deviates from the Newtonian predicted orbit, can you use that information to solve for the location of the mystery planet which must also be in your star system?
Miriam Abecasis (MA/SE) worked with Dr Torrey Gallagher (Mathematics) on a project related to the field of quantum graphs. With funding from an ICUNJ Undergrad Research Symposium grant, Miriam constructed and tested a physical apparatus to determine how closely the harmonic spectrum of connected string networks aligned with the spectrum predicted by her theoretical quantum graph model of the network.
Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey Undergraduate Research Symposium
April 1, 2025
Miriam Abecasis ’27 represented the Math department at the Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey (ICUNJ) Undergraduate Research Symposium at Bell Works in Holmdel. She presented her research on quantum graphs that was funded by an ICUNJ grant. Miriam was among only a handful of second-years in the pool of 53 individuals/teams of undergraduates presenting their work from colleges and universities all across the state, and her poster was one of the most popular at the event.
