Utah Valley University presents

1. Utah Valley Universitypresents Math Week celebrations at UVU

2. History of Math Week at UVU • The idea originated from Kathryn Van Wagoner (the Math Lab Coordinator at UVU, Jan 2000 – Feb 2012) • She became aware of MAA's Math Awareness Month held every April. (www.mathaware.org)

3. History of MW at UVU contd. • The first Math Awareness Week (MAW) at UVU washeldin September 2005.“Mathematics is Everywhere.” • Kathy started MAW in response to the huge negative culture surrounding math.

4. History contd. • The student government partnered with Kathy Van Wagoner. • They brought in two Keynote speakers: • Jaime Escalante, and • Keith Devlin.

5. History contd. • The second best turnout for a keynote speaker: Dave Irvine- the MIT blackjack player (2008) • There are many institutions that do some kind of Math Awareness event. www.mathaware.org

6. History contd. • Kathy • did a lot of internet searches for activity ideas; • Her goal was to have • a keynote presentation, • an academic lecture and • at least one activity based on the theme and include the amazing math race, factoring bee, and chocolate math therapy.

7. History contd. • For the last few years that Kathy was in charge, the goal was for the keynote to be more engaging than just a speaker. • She searched Youtube to find interesting people/presenters. • Kathy liked to include an academic lecture to appeal to the true mathematicians and scientists in the group.

8. History • She also tried to connect with other departments, such as getting the art department to participate in the art-themed year. • Funding: Kathy received some money from the Deans of University College and the College of Science and Health at UVU for at least one year.

9. History contd. • Student govt. paid to bring in Jaime Escalante. • Money then came from the Math Initiative (MI) funding after the budget request was granted based on recommendations of the UVU Math Task force.

10. A learning experience Challenges:  • Keep it manageable for the help available to do it. It was usually just Kathy and a student employee who did most of the work. • Upon recommendation by the MI committee, a Math Week committee was formed of math faculty in December of 2011. • Math Week is now run by this committee of faculty.

11. Learning experience contd. • Keep really good notes about what worked and didn't work. • Try to standardize as much as possible so that you don’t have to make the same decision twice.

12. Learning contd. • Marketing is very important to insure a good turnout to events, especially where there is a special speaker. • Often the better support was for UVU professors because their colleagues would support them and bring their students.

13. Learning contd. • Knowing what size room to schedule for a particular event was also a challenge. • One year Chocolate Math Therapy (CMT) was so well attended it had to be moved to another room on the spot.

14. Utah Valley University Math Week 2005 “Mathematics is Everywhere”

15. Math Week 2005 agenda • “Stand and Deliver” and other math movies were shown. • Jaime Escalante and others spoke to students about the importance of learning mathematics.

16. UVU MATH WEEK 2007 “Can You Weather the Math?”

17. MATH WEEK 2007-Can you weather the math? • Roland Steadham, KUTV chief meteorologist was keynote speaker • There were several fun competitions for students: Factoring Bee, Sudoku, Chess and more.

18. UVU Math Week 2008 “UVU Math, We Got Game”

20. UVU Math Week 2009 “Infinite Beauty: Math and Art”

22. Mathematics in Art display UVU library

23. Kathy Van Wagoner’s artist friend helped her curate the exhibit. It was scheduled for one month in the library.

24. The entire exhibit is archived online.http://contentdm.uvu.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/Infinite

25. David Richter taught students in Zome construction

26. Taking the zome construct to its home in the library.

27. Kathy Van WagonerFor more on zome construction click on http://homepages.wmich.edu/~drichter/seventyfive16cells.htm

28. Math & Dance workshopStudents learned how to use creative movements to develop their understanding of mathematical concepts.

29. UVU Math Week 2010 “Patterns: Math & Nature”

32. Daniel Fairbanks

33. Daniel Fairbanks and Gregor Mendel

35. Factoring Bee

36. The Amazing Math Race

37. UVU MATH WEEK 2011 “Math in Space”

40. Interactive Space Museum • People were able to experience close encounters with real space craft, such as a lunar rover, hovercraft or flight simulator. • They were able to sit in a space toilet or walk in anti-gravity boots.

41. Math Week 2011Interactive space museum

42. Math Week 2011

43. Math Week 2011

44. Keynote speaker: Mario Livio, an astrophysicist from the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute gave a lively account of the ideas of some of the greatest mathematicians and scientists in history while discussing the question: Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered?

45. UVU MATH WEEK 2012 “Math Made Magical”

46. Math Week 2012 “Math Made Magical”

48. For Math Week 2012, we kicked off the Math Week celebrations with a carnival. • We had a prize wheel which students could spin to win water bottles, pens, candy bars, Math Week t-shirts and more! • We had booths where students could play math games and watch different demonstrations as well as Vi Hart videos.

49. We invited the Women in Technology Center to host a booth • We had a booth where students could play Sudoku and win prizes. • At the carnival, we handed out flyers about the Math Week activities to let students know about the week’s events. • We gave out flyers in our classes, too.

50. Math Week Carnival