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For high school girls and their teachers
Saturday, February 21, 2009
WOU Werner University Center
9:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Free and fun! Lunch
and snacks! Contest Prizes! Door Prizes!
Sonia Kovalevsky Day is
a program of hands-on workshops, talks and a problem-solving contest for high
school women students and their teachers, both women and men. The purpose of
the day is to encourage young women to continue their study of mathematics
and to assist the teachers of women mathematics students.
Sponsored by The Western
Oregon University Foundation and by
The Western Oregon University Mathematics Department
Sonia Kovalevsky (Sofia
Kovalevskaya) is a famous mathematician and scientist who was born in Moscow
in 1850. She displayed an aptitude for mathematics while still a young girl
but her interest in formal study was discouraged by her father. She married
and moved to Germany to study, but was obliged to be tutored privately since
universities would not allow women to attend. She was, however, granted her
doctorate, summa cum laude, from Göttingen University in 1874, having
completed three papers, one of which was a remarkable contribution to the
subject of partial differential equations. Despite her gifts, she was unable
to obtain an academic position for many years. She went on to become a
respected figure in the European scientific community, lecturing in
Stockholm, editing a new journal, organizing international conferences and
winning prizes from the French and Swedish Academies of Science for her
important work on the study of rigid bodies. She died of influenza in 1891,
at the peak of her career, in which she published ten papers in mathematics
and mathematical physics and also several literary works.
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Schedule of Events
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Time
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Event
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9:15 - 9:45 a.m.
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Registration
Columbia Room, Werner University Center
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9:45 - 10:00 a.m.
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Welcome and Opening
Address
Dr. Cheryl Beaver, Mathematics Department
Dr. Stephen Scheck, Dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences
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10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
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Four concurrent hands-on sessions
Each girl will attend each
session over the course of the day: session attendance order will be
assigned at registration
Who wants to be a Millionaire? -
Math Edition:
We will be giving away a total of
2,000,000 tenths of cents in scholarships.
End of the Universe?: Use math and
the ancient “Tower of Hanoi” puzzle to
estimate the end of the universe.
Pop Bottle Symphony: Use the latest
technology (and just a hint of math) to
tune partially-filled pop bottles into musical
instruments and play a familiar song.
Fun with Origami: See how mathematics
is related to the art of Origami in
this hands-on session. |
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10:45 - 11:30 a.m.
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Campus Tour
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11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
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Four concurrent
hands-on sessions
(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami) |
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12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
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Lunch, Columbia Room
Forensics: It’s All About Sampling
Dr. Emma Dutton, Oregon State Police
Forensic Services Division
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1:15 - 2:00 p.m.
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Four concurrent
hands-on sessions
(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami) |
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2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
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Four concurrent
hands-on sessions
(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami)
Resource Session for Teachers
Sharing Classroom Resources
Mathematics and Nursing Building 110
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2:45 - 3:00 p.m.
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Math Millionaire
Grand Prize Winners!
Door Prizes Awarded
Columbia Room |
Brochure and Registration Form
Please Return Completed Registration
Forms to:
Sonia Kovalevsky Day
Department of Mathematics
Western Oregon University
345 N. Monmouth Avenue
Monmouth, OR 97361
Get Campus
Directions here
Questions? Call the Mathematics
Department at 503-838-8465.
Special THANKS to the following supporters
for their generous donations:
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