June 4, 2025
AIɫɫ’s McKenna Dunham presented her project solving theoretical exercises on probability during this year’s Celebration of Scholarship conference. Dual-majoring in Mathematical Sciences and Adolescent-to-Young-Adult Integrated Mathematics, she received the Library Research Award for her work “Examining Fermat’s Combinatorial Identity and Bonferroni’s Inequality”.
“A few semesters ago I had the Probability 1 course with Dr. Whitaker and I really enjoyed the content covered in that class, so I decided I wanted my Senior Research project to be focused on Probability,” said Dunham. “Using our Probability 1 textbook, we worked through many theoretical exercises that time did not allow for us to cover in class. I was able to present a couple of the problems we had solved as my Celebration of Scholarship project.”
Working through the difficult problems throughout the year, Dunham saw how this project could prepare her to teach in the classroom.
“As educators, we know our content extremely well, but this can sometimes lead to us forgetting what it is like to not understand the content immediately,” sha said. “If we are unable to relate to our students in their lack of understanding, then we will not be able to effectively teach it to our students.”
Receiving recognition from the Clark Memorial Library for her work, Dunham felt a great honor in being able to share her work with the campus community.
“It’s a recognition of the hard work, dedication, and effort I have put into this research project,” she said. “I am also incredibly grateful to Dr. Whitaker, who has greatly supported me along the way.”
Taking the time to learn how to struggle through problems and gaining an understanding of different theories, Dunham encourages other students to see the benefits of committing themselves to a large research project that can be presented during conferences like Celebration of Scholarship.
“This has been a great opportunity for me to learn how to struggle in academics, but also how to stay persistent until I overcome the obstacles,” she said.
To learn more about the annual Celebration of Scholarship conference at AIɫɫ, visit shawnee.edu/cos.