Math department designs month full of activities, contests for kids

LAWRENCE -- More than 100 elementary, junior high and high school students from area schools will be on the University of Kansas campus this week to participate in Mathematics Awareness Month activities.

Each year, the Department of Mathematics at KU organizes competitions and workshops for the students in conjunction with the national Mathematics Awareness Month. This year's national theme is "Mathematics and the Genome."

The math competitions begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 13, in 405 Snow Hall. Prizes will be awarded to the top students in each category during the math department's honors banquet on April 23.

Gloria Prothe, public service administrator in the math department, said KU students and faculty designed a number of workshops to demonstrate to children that math can be fun and interesting. KU also will open its math courses to the general public this month, she said.

Workshop titles include "Why You Look Funny: The Mathematics of Genetics," "Fun Facts with Fascinating Fractions" and "The Magnificent Mathematics of Money."

Prothe said the biggest challenge math educators face is developing the interest of elementary school children.

"Most students are very excited about math up through sixth grade," she said. "Once they get into junior high school, it gets harder to keep them interested because they get involved in so many other things -- so if you really want to keep them interested in math, you have to get them at the earlier ages."

Along with activities and contests for schoolchildren, the math department has scheduled a number of guest speakers and workshops throughout the month for the KU community.

Among the speakers the math department is bringing to campus this month is Gilbert Strang, professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Strang has written six textbooks, including one that is used in KU's Math 590 Linear Algebra course.

For more information on all of the Math Awareness 2002 events at KU, contact Prothe or Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics. Either can be reached at (785) 864-3651.