AWM at MathFest 2011

Student Chapter Poster Session Abstracts

Friday, August 5, 1:00–2:30 pm in Heritage Ballroom East, Level 1

Helen Parks University of California San Diego (hfparks@math.ucsd.edu)

The UCSD AWM In 2007, graduate students at the University of California-San Diego founded a student chapter of AWM. In the following three years, the chapter was awarded a TENSOR-MAA Women and Mathematics Grant which (along with matching funds from UCSD’s Physical Sciences Division) has allowed them to organize a number of activities at UCSD. We will discuss these outreach activities as well as some of the lessons learned along the way.

Alexandra Ortan University of Minnesota (aortan@umn.edu)

Reaching out to younger generations through fun mathematics The poster will highlight some of the outreach activities members of the AWM chapter at the University of Minnesota have been involved in during the last year. Among others, this includes our participation as mentors in the 2011 Girls and Mathematics Summer Program organized at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications at the University of Minnesota. The program is aimed at supporting the interest of middle school girls in mathematics and serves 50 students which are exposed to a variety of fun mathematical topics outside the classroom setting. The poster will focus on some of the educational material we have developed in connection with this involvement and on the teaching and mentoring experience gained by the undergraduate and graduate AWM members during the program.

Jill Dunham Hood College (dunham@hood.edu)

Hood College student chapter of the AWM The AWM student chapter at Hood College put on three great activities during the past academic year that we will feature on our poster. The first was a seminar by Professor Jacqueline Jensen. Professor Jensen gave a colloquium on knot theory. Preceding the talk, students had the opportunity to meet her over lunch. Then in January, two student members traveled to the Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics. They met outstanding women in mathematics and learned about graduate school and career opportunities, as well as attending mathematics talks. The highlight of the year for our AWM chapter came in March, when we hosted our seventh Sonia Kovalevsky Day for high school girls. This year, we had participants from all 10 Frederick County high schools. Over 40 high school students participated, along with their teachers. They took part in workshops on math and music, decoding the Postnet bar code, and the geometry of the pantograph, which tied together a very old mechanical device for drawing figures with modern computer software. Students also learned about the life of Sonia Kovalevsky from a current Hood math major and about careers in mathematics from recent Hood graduates and two successful women from NSA.

Maia Averett Mills College (maverett@mills.edu)

Mills College AWM Student Chapter Our poster will share the activities of the newly-formed Mills College AWM Student Chapter in its founding year.

Rachel Elizabeth Bachman Clarkson University’s AWM Student Chapter (bachmare@clarkson.edu)

Clarkson University’s AWM Student Chapter: Service to the Scientific, Campus, and Local Communities We describe AWM student chapter activities at Clarkson University that center around service on campus, in the local community, and beyond. These include peer tutoring for the freshmen Calculus gateway exams, undergraduate research presentations open to the campus, graduate school panel discussions, sponsoring colloquium speakers, grading for the national MATHCOUNTS competition, and running a local essay contest for middle school students.

Cynthia Kramer Murray State University (cynthia.puckett@murraystate.edu)

Murray State University AWM Chapter Abstract: In fall 2008, Murray State University organized a student chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics. We will chronicle the activities our chapter has undertaken during the past three years. These include outreach activities, organizing Spring and Christmas Mathematics Banquets, a Women Engaged in STEM research colloquium, etc.