Math and the Mouse: Day 1 Blog (5/13)

Welcome to the Math and the Mouse 2026 Blog! This is the first of 21 daily posts of detailed stories and events of our adventure here at Disney World. We’re super excited to share the highlights of our trip with you all!

We started the day off dark and early at 5:45 where we met up to leave Furman's campus for Disney World! We took two stops along our nine-hour drive, one at a Pilot gas station and another at Buc-ee's for lunch. After finally making it to the hotel at around 3:30pm, we took a much-needed break before departing for Epcot at 4:00.

Once we arrived, Dr. Hutson spent some time introducing us to some of the mathematics behind maps and coordinates that we will be learning more about in the coming days. Not only did he talk about optimization and boundaries on a graph, he applied it to the map of Epcot in a fun way so we could easily visualize the concepts.

We then made our way to Test Track, the group’s first ride of the trip. By then, the professors were getting tired of hoarding several hungry college students around, so we all got dinner at Connections Eatery. We spent the next few hours riding Soarin’, Spaceship Earth, and the Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros in Mexico.

From there, we headed to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride; despite the wait time displaying 105 minutes, there was a near even split of students who wanted to ride and students who wanted to head back. Dr. Harris heroically rallied to accompany the students who wanted to wait in the line, while Drs. Hutson and Bouzarth took the remaining eight to view the fireworks.

Unfortunately for the firework-viewing group, it began to pour so they all collectively decided to head back to the hotel after half an hour. Everyone, exhausted from the long travel day, headed to bed early awaiting the long day ahead of them, full of math and the first Magic Kingdom visit of many!

This first blog was written by Aidan Barnard and Annmarie Henderson!

Welcome to Math and the Mouse!

We are very excited about the opportunity to run this study away May Experience course in 2026! You will find information about our adventures before, during, and after our trip as we bring Furman to Florida to explore ways that mathematical thinking and quantitative approaches to decision making and problem solving are used throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. 

We will be at the Study Away Fair during Family Weekend, but we will also hold information sessions specific to Math and the Mouse during October. The information sessions are all held in Riley 105 and will take place October 9th, 4-5pm, and October 22nd, 5-6pm. Applications for all MayX programs are due by November 3rd.

This program is open to students in all majors and has a prerequisite of MTH-145 or MTH-150. 

We look forward to talking with you soon!

Drs. Liz Bouzarth, John Harris, and Kevin Hutson