KU News Release

KU celebrates Math Awareness Month with competitions, workshops

LAWRENCE — More than 350 elementary, junior high and high school students from area schools will be on the University of Kansas campus this month 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 “Math and the Brain.”

The math competition was held April 7. Prizes will be awarded to the top students in each category during the mathematics department’s Honors Banquet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Adams Alumni Center. The competition has four levels: third and fourth grade, fifth and sixth grade, junior high and high school. This is the first year a competition for third and fourth graders has been held.

Workshops for sixth graders from Kennedy and Schwegler elementary schools will demonstrate to students how math is used in their everyday lives. They will take place from 9:30 to 11:15 a.m. April 18 and 25 at 306 Snow Hall.

Along with activities and contests for children, the math department also schedules a number of guest speakers throughout the month for the KU community. Philip Ulinski, chair of the Committee on Computational Neuroscience at University of Chicago, will give a lecture at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, on “Stability and Persistence in Visual Cortex.” A location is still to be determined.

The public is invited to participate in all of the activities.

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