Did you know the Colonial City of Santo Domingo hosts the first museum in Latin America specialized in mathematics, an eye-opening experience for the entire family. The Museo de Experiencia de las Matemáticas is located at the Centro Cultural de las Telecomunicaciones Ing. Alvaro Nadal on Calle Isabel la Católica, diagonally across from the Plaza España.
Opened in November 2017, the Akiyama’s Math Experience Museum is the second hands-on math museum built by Professor Jin Akiyam and his first in Latin America. His first was the “Akiyama’s Math Experience Plaza” in Tokyo built in 2013.
71-year old Professor Jin Akiyama is regarded as one of the best-known mathematics author and professor in Japan. He studied at Tokyo University of Science and Sophia University, as well as at the University of Michigan in the United States. He is best known for explaining mathematics. He was the host of the popular educational prime time TV series (running from 1991 to 2013) that for years helped Japanese understand and excel in mathematics. The series had over 400 episodes over its 25 years on the NHK TV station. The shows are available at the Santo Domingo museum.
Akiyama is the author or co-author of more than 200 books including, “Treks into Intuitive Geometry” (with K. Matsunaga, Springer, 2016), “Factors and Factorizations of Graphs” (with M. Kano, Springer, 2011) and, “A Day’s Adventure in Math Wonderland” (with M. Ruiz, World Scientific, 2008), which was translated into ten different languages.
Professor Akiyama continues to teach at the University of Sciences of Tokyo, a 140-year university. He is also president of the Museum of Science and Mathematical Experiences at the Tokyo University of Science.
Professor Akiyama is the namesake of the Nintendo DS game, Master Jin Jin’s IQ Challenge.
Professor Akiyama came personally for the opening of the museum. At the opening, Dominican ambassador in Japan, Hector Domínguez, told the story of how the museum came to be. He explained he first discovered the concept of a fun introduction to mathematics at the Museo de Matemáticas de Cornellá in Barcelona, Spain, where the museum was also a tourist attraction. There he met Professor Akiyama and began working on the project. The project got a major boost when he received an email from the Japanese professor who had seen the Dominican results in the OECD tests for 60 countries and the DR was listed last. Akiyama was challenged to help Dominican students perform better on math and science skills tests. The professor donated 46 modules that are the same as at the Tokyo museum. Another four were added for 50 modules that are part of the Dominican museum, with the commitment to bring 50 more modules for the museum expansion. The collaboration is being expanded to other sciences taught at the Tokyo University of Sciences, such as physics, chemistry, pharmacology.
Read more in Spanish:
http://www.do.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/00_000259.html
http://jin-akiyama.com/index_eng.html
30 January 2018
