内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2025/seattle-museum-director-jenny-quinn-on-why-math-matters-more-than-ever-in-the-age-of-ai/

内容总结：

美国西雅图数学博物馆执行馆长珍妮·奎因始终坚信"数学无处不在"。这位曾任美国数学协会主席的数学教授，如今正以魔术师般的热情，将三维打印的斐波那契数列拼图等教具装入行囊，走进社区开展数学启蒙。

奎因于2024年6月执掌这家尚无固定展馆的"流动博物馆"。过去一年间，她带领团队通过 farmers market 快闪、数学艺术展、校园俱乐部等400多场活动，让1.8万民众在啤酒馆、社区中心甚至菜市场里体验数学之美。其核心使命是打破"数学天赋论"的认知壁垒——"数学如同乐器与运动，无需天生才能，只需持久练习"。

面对人工智能的挑战，奎因强调数学教育具有不可替代的价值：AI虽能快速生成答案，但数学培养的逻辑思辨能力正是识别"AI幻觉"的关键防护网。她特别指出，数学训练所培育的创造性解决问题的能力，是应对技术时代的核心竞争力。

目前该机构正筹划在西雅图建立5000平方英尺的实体馆，并致力于构建全国数学博物馆网络。奎因的愿景不仅限于场馆建设，更希望让数学思维成为公众审视世界的基石："我们需要培养善用数据、清晰思考的问题解决者，而数学正是构建这种批判性思维的关键。"

中文翻译：

珍妮·奎因的背包里装着数学踏上旅程。
她将数学元素逐一取出：色彩鲜艳的3D打印组件咔嗒拼接成完美矩形。当摆弄斐波那契数列拼图时，她双眸闪动，手指翩飞——既是教师，亦是魔术师。

作为西雅图数学博物馆（SUMM）的执行馆长，这位前美国数学协会主席、华盛顿大学塔科马分校数学教授对数学的热爱极具感染力。在她眼中"数学无处不在"，从音乐艺术到自然万物，数学脉络隐于其间。"它不仅是算账工具或代数算术，"她告诉GeekWire，"更是缔造宏伟建筑的基石，是音乐理论的灵魂。"

2024年6月出任馆长的奎因视此职位为"毕生所求"。疫情期间担任数学协会主席时，她创建《新冠时期的数学》博客协助同行适应线上教学，并领悟到："必须让数学突破固有爱好者圈层。"

SUMM的使命是全民参与。"若五岁孩童兴奋地在家玩数学解谜，却遭遇家庭对数学的消极态度，所有积极影响都会消散，"她强调，"必须让整个家庭融入。"目前博物馆通过区域活动辐射社区：去年在Ballard区举办"啤酒与证明"活动、农贸市场快闪、数艺展览及校园俱乐部等400多场活动，覆盖超1.8万人，仅靠6名全职与12名兼职教育者实现。

但奎因梦想更远：在西雅图建立实体数学博物馆，让所有人体验数学之乐。关于SUMM的独特定位，她解释虽无固定展馆，但"博物馆"存在于学校、农贸市场和酒吧中，南西雅图的办公室仅是"筹备空间"。去年团队日均举办超过一场活动，核心是通过动手实践型展览"赋能数学学习者"。

奎因常听人们因某门数学课受阻而放弃医生、工程师等职业，这折射出更深层问题："人们总说'我不是学数学的料'，我们必须改变这种文化。"她认为数学如同乐器或运动，可通过练习掌握："不需要天赋，只需坚持培养能力——只要我们让它值得你付出。"

相较于分数或职业，她更关注宏观影响："想象一个由善于运用数据、思维清晰的问题解决者构成的世界，这些能力都通过数学培养。"数学博物馆正是要构建让批判性思维与创造力触手可及的社会。

面对AI冲击，奎因反驳"数学过时论"："数学远不止获取答案。AI虽能给出答案，但会虚构内容——核心在于'结构虽美，是否真实？'"她强调数学教育培养的核心能力能让人"不盲目相信生成内容"，逻辑思维正是抵御AI幻觉的利器。

她更指出伦理矛盾：多年来教导学生避免抄袭，如今却放任模型抓取网络内容且"无视版权侵权...合成未知是否抄袭的内容"。AI的局限性恰恰反衬数学思维的价值："创造性数学所需的思维纪律正是AI所缺乏的。"过度依赖机器生成内容如同反复复印导致质量衰减，而数学训练既能培养批判思维，亦能锤炼创造性解决问题的能力。

关于未来，奎因梦想拥有5000平方英尺的实体馆，设"适合Instagram打卡"的核心展区与常换常新的互动装置。她清醒认识西雅图博物馆业的财务困境，但坚信能实现目标。现阶段重点保持社区曝光度："数学无处不在却未被察觉，我们要让人惊呼'原来这是数学！'"她计划一年内"在博物馆中开辟展区"，通过合作空间过渡至独立建馆。

奎因以纽约数学博物馆为灵感来源："卓越的场馆...但全国90%的人无力前往。"她希望太平洋西北地区拥有交通便利的数学馆，"若观众无法前来，我们就送教上门"。放眼全美，她呼吁各大都市圈建立数学博物馆网络："每个大城市都有科学或儿童博物馆，但数学服务始终不足。我们应该共享资源而非各自为战。"

英文来源：

Jenny Quinn travels with math in her backpack.
She unpacks it piece by piece: bright, 3D-printed shapes that click together into perfect rectangles. As she moves the Fibonacci sequence puzzle around, her eyes brighten and her hands quicken. She is both teacher and magician.
Quinn is the executive director of the Seattle Universal Math Museum (SUMM). She’s also a past president of the Mathematical Association of America and a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Her passion for math is contagious.
To Quinn, “math is everywhere,” and she couldn’t be more excited to share her love for it. From music to art to nature itself, she sees math woven through it all.
“It’s not just balancing your check book, and it’s not just arithmetic or algebra,” she told GeekWire. “It’s creating beautiful buildings. It’s music theory.”
Quinn joined SUUM as the executive director in June 2024. She describes her role as the “job I have trained my whole life for.”
Quinn was previously president of the Mathematical Association of America during COVID, where she authored a blog called Math in the Time of Corona and helped colleagues adapt to teaching online. “I built a lot of leadership skills,” she said, “and I saw that we have to promote math to more than the people who already love it.”
The mission of SUUM is to involve everyone. “If I get a five-year-old and I can get them excited to play with puzzles and solve problems — if they go home and there’s a negative vibe toward math in their home, all that positivity can be taken away again,” she said. “So you need to bring the whole family along.”
For now, SUMM operates out of an office, bringing math to the community through events across the region. Last year, it reached more than 18,000 people with programs like Pints and Proofs in Ballard, pop-ups at farmers markets, math-and-art exhibitions, and school clubs. That reach is powered by six full-time staff, and 12 part-time educators, who together manage more than 400 events a year.
But her dream goes further: a permanent, physical museum in Seattle, where anyone can come to experience the joy of mathematics.
We sat down with Quinn to talk about why Seattle needs a math museum, her thoughts on AI and mathematics, and where SUUM is headed next.
What is SUUM?
Quinn acknowledges that people are sometimes puzzled by the fact that SUUM calls itself a museum without having its own physical space.
“It’s a staging space,” she says of the current office in South Seattle. “It’s where we store everything and we prepare the materials … but it’s not an exhibit space.”
Instead, the “museum” lives in schools, farmers’ markets, community centers, and pubs.
This past year, Quinn’s team averaged more than one event every day. She said that approach is the heart of SUUM’s mission. “The Math Museum is about empowering math learners. So we do that with hands-on, interactive, creative exhibits.”
Why is it needed?
Quinn is struck by how often people say they could have pursued careers as doctors, engineers, or scientists, but “couldn’t get past” a particular math class. To her, that reveals a more widespread issue.
“People say, well, I’m not a math person,” she said. “And we have to change that culture. We have to have people understand that everyone is a math person.”
She believes math should be treated like any other skill: one that can be learned and practiced. “Like playing a musical instrument or a sport, you’re not good at it when you start,” she explained. “You don’t have to be naturally talented, but you can develop the facility with persistence as long as we make it worthwhile to you.”
For Quinn, the stakes are much bigger than test scores or career paths. “I want you to imagine a world where we have people who can solve our problems who are not afraid to use data, who think clearly, and all of that is developed through math,” she said.
That, she argues, is the kind of society a math museum can help build — one where critical thinking and creativity are accessible to everyone.
What about AI?
Quinn pushes back on the idea that AI makes mathematics obsolete. “Math is so much more than getting an answer,” she said.
“AI is going to get you an answer,” she notes. But the danger, she warns, is that AI “makes stuff up.” For her, that’s the core issue: “the structure is always beautiful, but is it real?”
This is why a mathematics education is vital, Quinn said. “We still need the core competencies to not just blindly trust what’s being generated.” She argues that logic is the safeguard against AI’s frequent “hallucinations.”
She also stresses broader ethical concerns. Having taught her students for years about plagiarism, Quinn points out the irony of letting models scrape the entire internet with “no regard for copyright infringement … and then synthesize something, and we don’t know if it’s plagiarizing or not.”
AI’s limits, she adds, are precisely what make the discipline of mathematical thought so invaluable. “The discipline of mind that’s needed to succeed in creative mathematics is exactly what AI doesn’t have,” she said.
Quinn compares relying too heavily on machine-generated content to making a “photocopy again and again,” and the result gradually deteriorates over time. Rigorous training in mathematics, she asserts, not only makes you a more critical thinker, but also hones your ability to approach problems creatively — skills essential in recognizing when something isn’t right.
What comes next for SUUM?
The ultimate dream is a permanent space. “I want a 5,000 square foot museum in Seattle,” Quinn said, with anchor exhibits that are “Instagram worthy” and interactive activities that change regularly. She is realistic about the challenge, with museums in Seattle struggling financially, but believes it can be done.
In the meantime, she’s focused on keeping SUMM in front of the community. “Math is everywhere,” she repeated. “It really is everywhere, but people don’t realize it.” She wants people to “go in and go, I didn’t know this was math!”
To do that, she aims “to be a museum within a museum in less than a year,” noting that a smaller partnership space could be the next step while SUMM works toward its own building.
Dreaming bigger and beyond Seattle
For inspiration, Quinn points to the Museum of Math in New York. “Fantastic museum. Love it. … They call themselves the nation’s math museum, but 90% of the nation can’t afford to go visit it,” she said.
Her goal is for people in the Pacific Northwest to have a math museum easily accessible, ideally one located on public transportation. “If they can’t come visit it, we want to be able to bring materials to them,” Quinn said. “We want to meet people where they are.”
Looking beyond Seattle, Quinn sees the need for a broader movement. “Every major metropolitan region needs one, and we should have this network where we support each other and share our materials so that we’re not all doing it in isolation,” she said, imagining something like franchising. Every large city has at least one science or children’s museum, she notes, but “none of them do enough service to math.”