Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day
at Western Oregon University

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.

Pictures from SK Day 2007

 

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.

 

Schedule of Events

Time

Event

9:15 - 9:45 a.m.

Registration
Columbia Room, Werner University Center

9:45 - 10:00 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Address
Dr. Cheryl Beaver, Mathematics Department
Dr. Stephen Scheck, Dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences

10:00 - 10:45 a.m.

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.

10:45 - 11:30 a.m.

Campus Tour

11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Four concurrent hands-on sessions

(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami)

12:15 - 1:15 p.m.

Lunch, Columbia Room

Forensics: It’s All About Sampling
Dr. Emma Dutton, Oregon State Police Forensic Services Division

1:15 - 2:00 p.m.

Four concurrent hands-on sessions

(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami)

2:00 - 2:45 p.m.

Four concurrent hands-on sessions

(Millionaire, End? Pop Bottles, Origami)


Resource Session for Teachers
Sharing Classroom Resources
Mathematics and Nursing Building 110

2:45 - 3:00 p.m.

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: