Sonia Kovalevsky Day is a fun-filled day of mathematics with hands-on workshops and talks for middle and high school students and their teachers. Originally started and funded by the Association for Women in Mathematics, the purpose of the day is to encourage young women to continue their study of mathematics and to assist the teachers of mathematics students. The Dartmouth Math Department hosts this event annually with the goal of inspiring young students to pursue degrees in the mathematical sciences and to honor female mathematicians such as Sonia Kovalevsky, who paved the way with her groundbreaking work and was a strong proponent of higher education for women.
We are delighted to hold this empowering event in person once again. Join us for a day of networking, mentoring, and fun!
Sponsored by:
Please come to Kemeny Hall 008
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9:00–10:00 |
Breakfast and Icebreaker |
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10:00–10:15 |
Welcome |
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10:15–11:00 |
Workshop: Advanced Connect-the-Dots Abstract: Imagine you’re a bus driver designing a route around town that starts and ends at the same location. Is it always possible to create a route that hits every bus stop exactly once? How about a route that takes every street exactly once? To a mathematician, answering these questions is no different than solving some variation of a connect-the-dots puzzle. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to create and solve these puzzles like a mathematician. Session Leaders: Beth Anne Castellano, David Shuster, and Kasia Warburton |
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11:15–12:00 |
Plenary Lecture: Mathematical Billiards Alena Erchenko, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth College Abstract: Mathematicians like to build models of real life objects and study their behavior. We will consider several types of billiards and the behavior of trajectories on them. Be prepared to draw and glue to study billiards! |
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12:00–1:00 |
Lunch |
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1:00–1:45 |
Workshop: The Pirate's Treasure Abstract: We can never predict the real world with total certainty, so to make decisions we use the math of probability to determine the best action in any circumstance. This workshop will introduce sampling and the expected value with a fun puzzle, which can be applied to many important problems like investment portfolio optimization and medication research and development. Session Leaders: Caroline Hammond, Brian Mintz, and Anna Vasenina |
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2:00–2:45 |
Workshop: Magic Squares Abstract: What is a magic square? It’s a square of distinct numbers where the sum of each row and each column are equal. Not only that, the two diagonal sums are equal to that sum as well. Can you construct magic squares with a fixed sum in mind? How many different magic squares are there for a fixed size, for example, a 3x3 magic square? Can you construct a magic square where all numbers are perfect squares? In this workshop we will explore magic squares, answer these and related questions, and connect them to more general questions about solving equations in integers. Session Leaders: Eran Assaf, Jay Chen, Ben Shapiro, and Longmei Shu |
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2:45–3:15 |
Social Activity |
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3:15 |
Evaluations and Closing |