In this hands-on College Edge seminar, you will explore the most visually striking ideas from UW’s first-year math courses by turning them into images, animations, and interactive designs. Instead of focusing on tests or proofs, the course invites you to see how mathematics moves, bends, and takes shape in the world around you.

You will work with ideas from two-dimensional motion, areas and volumes, projectiles, and three-dimensional surfaces, drawing from concepts you will later encounter in late courses such as Math 120, 124, 125, and 126. Using powerful visual tools like Desmos and other creative software, you will experiment with existing models and then remix them to ask and answer your own questions.

This course is designed to help you start autumn quarter feeling confident and curious, with early exposure to key math ideas in a low-pressure, creative environment. No prior advanced math experience is required, just a willingness to explore and experiment.

The course culminates in a creative final project where you choose how to communicate a mathematical idea that interests you. Options include a 3D print, an animation, a short video, or a combination of formats. The goal is not to be perfect, but to make math visible, personal, and engaging.

Learn more about the instructor of this course here.