At new math museum near Seattle, it's all about positivity

KENT - When she was teaching middle school math, Tracy Drinkwater accompanied her students on field trips. She went on field trips with her own kids, too.

But they were never math-related.

"That's a crime," she said. "There's science, there's literature, there's everything else."

That's changing now that the organization she founded in 2019, the Seattle Universal Math Museum, has opened its first public space.

SUMM - get it? - welcomed families Saturday at Kent Station for a Pi Day Community Math Festival and grand opening. Pi Day lands on March 14, a celebration of the irrational number that begins with 3.14.

A broad range of math activities were on offer. Kids and parents fiddled with geometric tiles, made origami and danced in front of a camera so that they could see themselves turned into fractal trees.

The museum's approach is to associate math with play, and to lower the stakes on mistakes.

For "a lot of people, their math anxiety stems from making mistakes and feeling stupid," Drinkwater said. "But when you're playing with math, mistakes are just, ‘Oh, that didn't work. I'll try another thing. It's no big deal.' "

The Kent Station space opens as Washington's state superintendent has called for boosting math education.

Twenty-five percent of Washington fourth graders and 41% of Washington eighth graders scored below the basic level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in the 2023-24 school year, according to the state's report card.

Jenny Quinn, the museum's executive director, points to how parents are encouraged to read to their children daily.

"We need to do the same thing with math," she said.

But what's the equivalent of reading with your kids when it comes to math?

"It's doing puzzles and playing games and talking about patterns," Quinn said.

Drinkwater says making math fun can help kids build their confidence - and that translates to the classroom.

Quinn said even she didn't always have a "beautiful relationship" with math, but she had people who believed in her and supported her.

"I've spent 30 years as a university professor in mathematics, and a lot of my work is remediating trauma," she said. " … So the people who love math, there was a positive influence somewhere that kept them hooked, that kept them engaged."

Liam Regan, 9, was hard at work with some interlocking Geometiles while his dad, Chris, looked on.

"It's a space that he really feels safe in," Regan said of the museum.

Winnie Dinh, also 9, was at the museum with her mom and little sister. Math is her favorite subject.

"It's fun," she said, and she really likes shapes.

Her favorite shape is the octagon. It has lots of sides, and she likes big numbers.

Winnie's advice for people who might not like math? The aspiring engineer recommends making animals out shapes. Try making a fish out of triangles or a crab out of squares.

Drinkwater said they want to meet people where they're at on their math journey.

"It's not about grade level, it's not about speed of learning and being on a time track, like at school," she said.

The museum is free, though donations are suggested, and open to the public from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays; 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays; and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. The museum is located at 437 Ramsay Way, Suite 102, in Kent.

You can learn more at seattlemathmuseum.org.

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