Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day
at Western Oregon University

For high school girls and their teachers
Saturday, February 27, 2010
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 and talks for high school women students and their teachers, both women and men. This year, we will also be having a Math Fair. 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.

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. Kent Neely, Provost
10:00 - 10:45 a.m.	Three concurrent hands-on sessions Each girl will attend each session over the course of the day: session attendance order will be assigned at registration Paper Capers: Fold and Cut Magic: What can you make by folding a piece of paper and cutting it just once? A butterfly? A fish? Find out in this math-a-magical session. The Chaos Game: We will be discovering facts about Siepinski triangles, and their connections to random events. In the Chaos Game, we will employ an alternative method for generating the Sierpinski triangle. Walk the Path: How well can you walk along a curved path? Find out as we use velocity sensors to track your progress as you try to “walk the path”.
10:45 - 11:30 a.m.	Campus Tour
11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.	Three concurrent hands-on sessions (Paper Capers, Chaos Game, Walk the Path)
12:15 - 1:15 p.m.	Lunch, Columbia Room
1:15 - 2:00 p.m.	Three concurrent hands-on sessions (Paper Capers, Chaos Game, Walk the Path) Resource Session for Teachers Brian Hanna Mathematics and Nursing Building 110
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.	Math Fair An afternoon of student-centered, hands-on, all-inclusive problem solving. Working with mathematics students from Western Oregon University, participants will help to solve interesting and exciting problems and win fun prizes. 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: