Sonia Kovalvsky High School Mathematics Days

Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Days

From AWM Newsletter, Vol. 29, No. 3, July-August 1999.

The Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Days below were funded by a grant awarded to AWM by the National Security Agency. Thanks, NSA!

Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne

Marilyn Reba, IPFW

Indiana University - Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW) held its second Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day on Saturday, November 21, 1998. All public and private schools in the area were invited to send their high school female students with their teachers. A total of 90 students and nine teachers from 12 schools attended.

The event was sponsored by AWM which, through a grant from NSA, provided most of the funding. The organizers were Marilyn Reba and Yvonne Zubovic, both members of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Marjorie Keever, Chair of the math department at Northrop High School, volunteered and facilitated communication with the area high schools. Other faculty from the Departments of Mathematics and Chemistry, as well as students from IPFW, volunteered to run workshops and assist the guests during the day's activities.

During welcoming remarks by the organizers and the Chair of the Math Department, Raymond Pippert, the students learned that this day of activities is dedicated to Sonia's curiosity and determination and that today the opportunities for them are unlimited because the kind of obstacles Sonia faced no longer exist. Students then moved to one of two 50-minute workshops being held simultaneously. (On their registration forms, they ranked the workshops being offered according to their interests and every attempt was made to honor their choices. Their assignments were listed on the cover of a folder containing the program, a math study-hint sheet, some career brochures and statistics about women in various careers, and information not only about Sonia, but also about contemporary female mathematicians working in various occupations.)

The two morning workshops were: (1) "Breaking Secret Codes: Introduction to Cryptography," by Sandra Speiser of the NSA. She provided the students with experience in breaking secret codes, presenting a variety of historical methods. (2) "Exploring Probability through Missing Persons' Genes," by Michelle Stephan, an assistant professor in math education at IPFW. She kept the students working and generated much enthusiasm.

Students returned to the large ballroom to hear a panel of six women from various professions who explained to them not only what they do and how they use mathematics, but also how they chose their fields and some of the obstacles they faced in getting where they are today. The professions included were cryptographer (Sandra Speiser of the NSA), number theorist (Jennifer Beineke of Trinity College), architect (Aime Lindsay of the Design Collaborative), civil engineer (J. Stroom of IPFW), and actuary (C. Corajod of Lincoln National Life Insurance Company). The panel spoke for approximately 50 minutes, with time for questions afterward. There were lots of questions asked, and information about scholarships and internships was given. The panel members graciously agreed to stay for lunch, which was next on the schedule, and to sit at the tables with the students.

After lunch students attended their second workshop. The two afternoon sessions were: (1) "Symmetry: Merry-Go-Rounds and Whirligigs or Do Mirrors Tell the Truth?," by Ronald Duchovic, Associate Professor of Chemistry at IPFW. (2) "Splendor in the Graphs," by Lowell Beineke, a well-know graph theorist, and his daughter, Jennifer Beineke, an assistant professor in mathematics at Trinity College. They involved the students in solving various problems, using graph theory and probability. Eager volunteers participated in the fun and students were thoroughly engaged.

All the students returned to the ballroom for an exciting presentation, "Mathematics in Stone and Bronze," by Helaman and Claire Ferguson. Helaman is a mathematician and sculptor who explained to the students how he uses mathematical formulas and a computer-guided system to create concrete expressions of mathematical theorems. Large images of his pieces were displayed on two screens, while a third screen was used to show how some of these sculptures were created and then installed at various universities or corporations. Claire, who authored a book about Helaman's work, gave a poetic description of the pieces, which enhanced student's appreciation of them. Small three-dimensional replicas of some of the sculptures were on a table for students to handle. One of his sculptures, "Incised Torus: Wild Sphere," appeared both as the logo on our Sonia Kovalevsky Day program and on the T-shirts given to the students.

At the end of the day students and teachers filled out questionnaires about the day's activities and the information gained. Among the comments from students: "Thank you for showing me that math and art have a connection." "The women on the panel were helpful; it was interesting to talk with them at lunch." "Problem-solving really can be fun!" "The chemistry and symmetry workshop was really interesting." "I'm going to apply for the NSA scholarship, thanks." "I want to know more about the torus." The consensus was: do it again next year!

IT Center for Educational Programs,
University of Minnesota

Andrea Olson, ITCEP, University of Minnesota

On Saturday, October 24, 1998, in honor of Sonia Kovalevsky, the first woman Ph.D. in mathematics, the University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program, supported by AWM, sponsored an exploration of opportunities in mathematics. Sixteen female high-school students and their teachers and parents/guardians participated in the event at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus.

We had anticipated 75 to 100 participants including students, parents, and teachers. However, due to conflicting pre-college exams being given in the Twin Cities area on the same day as Sonia Kovalevsky Day (of which we were not aware when we submitted our proposal and set the date) we had very limited attendance. Some of the participants came for the morning and left after

lunch to attend these exams. The sixteen female high school students who did attend showed a strong interest in the events of the day, and for nine of them, this was the first time that they had participated in a event sponsored by our Center.

The event was held to engage young women and their parents in mathematics beyond the traditional classroom and standard curriculum. As cited in various studies, mathematics events and competitions provide the chance for students to work together on solving math problems and exploring applications. They also offer the students the chance for recognition of their talents by their classmates, instructors, families, and the public. Sonia Kovalevsky Day was intended to address these issues in addition to motivating the female students to continue their interest in mathematics.

After a welcome from Dr. Cynthia Kaus, the participants engaged in the following activities: a panel discussion with professional female mathematicians and scientists who use mathematics daily in their careers, a poster session presented by female graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota and various local colleges, two talks by prominent female mathematicians currently doing research in the mathematical sciences, and an active learning workshop for students focusing on modular arithmetic.

The career panel was comprised of female professionals for whom mathematics is a critical part of their work. Valuable information about the opportunities for females in mathematics was presented. Following a brief introduction by each professional, the four panelists spent the next 45 minutes answering individual questions. In addition to having specific questions answered, participants commented that they learned about a range of informa-tion, from the number of opportunities available in mathematics for women to the importance of math and science in the future workplace. Dr. Rebecca Rose, a veterinarian pathologist, received the most enthusiastic responses from the participants. In the evaluations, the students highly rated careers that would involve the biological sciences and its related mathematics. Participants indicated that the opportunity to have individual questions addressed is what made the panel so interesting.

The morning keynote speaker was Kristina Pereyra. A University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program alumnus, she is now a software engineer for SQRIBE Technologies in Menlo Park, California. She talked about her work in cellular biology, relational databases and software engineering. Kristina described how she applied her mathematical background to these areas through data analysis and the study of the logic of computer languages. In addition, she discussed another of her professional responsibilities, which is interviewing and hiring candidates for technical positions. Kristina said that she has found that there is a shortage of qualified people to fill these positions and that many companies are desperate to find more people with these skills. She encouraged the members of the audience to consider careers in these areas.

Five University of Minnesota female graduate students presented the poster session. This was followed by lunch with the graduate students, speaker, and panelists, which allowed time for questions and socialization in an informal setting.

Dr. Kathleen Rogers, an applied mathematician who is currently working with the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) at the University of Minnesota, was the afternoon speaker. She discussed her past and current research in insect population dispersal, modeling airflow around an airplane wing, stability in elastic rod models of DNA supercoiling, a neuronal model of a leech heart, and the welding and clamping of beams. Kathleen also talked about what it is like to be an applied mathematician, the opportunities available to a person with her background, and some of the other projects currently sponsored by the IMA.

The day concluded with a Modular Arithmetic Workshop presented by Dr. Cynthia Kaus. The interactive workshop covered the basics of modular arithmetic along with more advanced topics such as identities, inverses, and the Euler totient function. Concepts underlying modular arithmetic and cycles were explored using a hands-on approach.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to AWM, without whose support this event would not have been possible.

National University

Frances A. Rosamond, National University, San Diego

The atmosphere was celebratory as two hundred girls, parents, teachers and university mathematics students gathered to enjoy a full day of activities designed to introduce exciting applications of mathematics and to encourage all to think of mathematics as an appropriate field for women to enter. The second Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day held at National University started with music, balloons, breakfast, door prizes, a welcome from Dr. Frances Rosamond of National University and a keynote speech by Dr. Elizabeth Rice, who talked about the roles of women in industry. The day is made possible through the support of AWM and NSA.

Special thanks go to San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, to Julie Meier Wright, President and CEO of San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, and to Joelle James of the Jenna Druck Leadership Program for their letters of support, which were included in the girl's activity packets. The San Diego Chamber of Commerce Business Roundtable on Education invited Dr. Rosamond to talk about Sonia K. Day, resulting in the Neighborhood House Association and School to Work programs bringing students to the Day. An avid promoter was Father Eduardo, pastor of Christ the King parish in National City. Father announced Mathematics Day for Girls from the pulpit, urged parents to send their daughters, and put a Sonia K. Day flyer in each church bulletin.

The San Diego Science Alliance announced Sonia Day on their web site, the Girl Scouts included an article in the Girl Scout newsletter Fast Forward, and Dee Cannon of Money Radio Station "www.roadtosuccess.com" invited Dr. Rosamond to be interviewed about Sonia K. Math Day for Girls. Especially appreciated are the San Diego city and county schools who helped disseminate flyers announcing the Day. National University produced a large attractive Sonia K. Math Day poster and advertised the day through public relations press releases. The press releases attracted the Art Bloomberg Today newsletter, which ran a two-page article on Sonia K. Day that brought telephone inquiries from as far away as New Jersey.

San Diego businesses showed tremendous support with donations so that each girl received a gift. Sea World donated popular stuffed-toy Shamus; Cafe Cybernet, gift certificates; Jambo Juice, mugs; and Trader Joe's, candy. San Diego Airgas donated balloons and gas. For her creative solutions in the mathematics competition, Kaoshoua Vang won the grand prize of Director software donated by Prentice Hall.

Each participant chose three sessions to attend from fifteen sessions offered. Maria Zack from the Institute of Defense Analyses, Center for Communications Research and Point Loma Nazarene University spoke on cryptology and had students creating and breaking codes. Two girls have decided to work at Sea World this summer because of Ruby Hernandez' presentation on math in Sea World Careers. Barbara Durant showed slides of panda sperm as she helped students understand the experimental design of reproductive physiology at the San Diego Zoo.

Glenda Davis, Head of Minority Engineering at UCSD, was a presenter. Leticia Hernandez from the Universidad Iberoamericana spoke on math in educational psychology. Everyone left their chairs to do cross-meridian exercises with Barbara Lucia from the Neurological Center of Washington, DC, who demonstrated "Brain Gym and Learning." National University math major Paddy Wilding told "How to Be a Success in Math"; Audrey Clements spoke on "Variety in Mathematics"; and ever-popular Jim Bell drew a full room for his activities on "Math and the Environment."

A special Panel on Statistics with Nancy Lo from the United States Fisheries Research Center, Pat Thomas, and Jan Callahan, who has her own statistics business (all members of the American Statistical Association) was broadcast through the Distance Learning Center to National University campuses in Sacramento and Los Angeles. A goal for the future is to broadcast at least part of the day's activities to remote locations.

All participants enjoyed lunch on the back terrace with the presenters. As last year, each girl was given a packet of materials that included the Equal's Starting Statements, Careers that Count: Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences from AWM, Aviation Careers: Women in Aviation, "A Century of Women's Participation in the MAA and Other Organizations" by Frances Rosamond and materials from NASA's Ames Research Center and from the National Security Agency.

Included in the packet were three postcards for students to self-address and give to favorite presenters or math majors. Presenters will write encouraging messages on the postcards so that each student will receive three messages this coming year. A stamped envelope addressed to Dr. Rosamond was included; she has already received one letter from a participant saying she would like more help in her current homework.

During the last part of the final activity sessions, students gathered in small groups to discuss and complete written questionnaires. Each small group was provided a tape recorder so that the girls could talk into a microphone about their experiences. Two math majors facilitated each activity session and helped with all aspects of the event during the entire day. Mathematics faculty member Martha Buibas took charge of registration.

Very special support came from Girl Scout Troop #6219 and their Leader Vickie Pare. Girls in the troop served on the Sonia K. Day Advisory Board and worked toward earning Girl Scout Mathematics Interest Patches. During one of the Advisory Board meetings, a member of the troop suggested having a dance at the Sonia K. Day. Why not? The purpose of the day is a happy celebration of girls' intelligence! So ... one of the activity sessions was "Inventing Math Dances." Local mathematician and guitarist Ron Sandvick and musician Lisa Rhodes helped the girls design a "math dance."

The math dance was demonstrated at the Closing and Awards Ceremony and then taught to the entire group. A busy all-day Saturday full of math activities came to a graceful close with everyone dancing a math dance.

University at Albany, SUNY

Karin Reinhold, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University at Albany, SUNY

The Sonia Kovalevsky Day was held on January 22, 1999. The event was sponsored by AWM and the University at Albany, SUNY, and on a smaller scale, by local businesses who donated prizes for the event.

We had 27 participants, 23 students and four teachers, from schools in the larger capital district area. The schools were suburban public schools, a homeschooled teacher-student team that found us on the web, and a private school.

Our experience with the Sonia Kovalevsky Day was very mixed. We had a hard time scheduling the event, but when it finally happened it was a success.

We originally planned the event for the public schools of the capital region. We invited 10 schools from the towns of Albany, Troy, Delmar, Colonie, Cohoes, Rensselear and Schenectady. The day was scheduled for October 17, 1998, but we had to cancel at the last minute. We had a hard time working with the teachers in the local schools. Even though we had talked to the teachers when we were planning the event, the teachers forgot to advise us of the schedule of their PSAT exams. As the date was drawing near, we repeatedly called the schools but our messages were mostly ignored. We finally got through to a couple to teachers who notified us about the PSAT exams, so we cancelled.

We decided to rehost the event in November, but the same dynamics were repeated and we had to cancel the event a second time. We were very disappointed after the failure of these two attempts but did not give up because we think that the Sonia Kovalevsky Day is a jewel of a program. We had scheduled very interesting workshops and career talks, and we were determined to make it a success.

After the second failure, we were advised to look into the schools participating in the University in High School Program. This time, on top of inviting the original 10 schools, we invited 10 more schools participating --- program at locations up to one hour away from the university.

Looking back, we should have organized the Sonia Kovalevsky Day differently. I strongly recommend that people interested in organizing such an event find first an interested group of teachers who will work with you in scheduling the Day and designing the program. Our mistake was naively thinking that we could develop the contacts as we went along. We thought that the teachers would be very enthusiastic about the program and would join us very easily, which was not the case. We failed to recognize that teachers and students already have very busy schedules, which may diminish their enthusiasm towards mathematics.

A good working partnership with the teachers is crucial to the success of the program, as our failed attempts show. We learned our lesson and will not organize a second Sonia Kovalevsky Day without direct involvement with the teachers.

During the Sonia Kovalevsky Day, we kept the students and teachers busy. Our department chair, Tim Lance, opened the session. Althea Bartley, a student of statistics, talked about how we got interest in hosting the event and read an excerpt from the AWM Newsletter. Lastly I, Karin Reinhold, talked about the life of Sonia Kovalevsky.

After the introductory session, the participants attended one of three workshops. "Ms. Mapleman" by Professor Carlos Rodriguez and "Coloring Knots" by Professor Steven Plotnick were for students, and "Is It Always 16?" by Professor Herb Brown was for teachers.

After the first workshops, the students took the Math Competition while the teachers attended the workshop "Reasons and resources for encouraging women to pursue mathematics" by Professor Vicky Kouba, Department of Education.

All participants gathered for lunch at the Student Center and came back to attend the Career Talks by leading women in our community: Denisa Kristianiek, Electrical Engineer at Bell Atlantic-Mobile, who talked about her experience in becoming an engineer and her work at Bell Labs setting up networks for car phones; Terry Landing, actuary at the New York State Retirement System, who talked about the actuarial career and the role of women in it; Kathleen Kinnally, biophysicist at Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research, who brought a few experiments with liquid nitrogen which the participants all loved and slides about her work as a basic research scientist studying the role of the mitochondria in cancer cells and the important role statistics plays in her work; and Judy Genshaft, psychologist and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University at Albany, SUNY, who talked about her studies of math anxiety and about statistics and cultural tendencies related to women pursuing science related careers.

After the talks, the students and teachers attended one of two workshops: "Simpson's Paradox" by Professor Malcom Sherman and "Tilings: Beau-tiful Patterns in Mathematics," by Professor Natalie Priebe from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute.

We closed the event with thanks to the sponsors, prizes for the top six students in the Math Competition and door prizes. The prizes were donated to us by local businesses (bookstores and a puzzle company), Texas Instruments, and the University at Albany Foundation, which gave money to be applied towards tuition for the top three students in the math competition.

We, as organizers, were very pleased with the outcome of the event. It seemed that participants and presenters all enjoyed the day. Most of the participants said they learned something new: about "careers and ideas involving math," "things to do in the computer," "the neat things you could do with tiling," and "Ms. Mapleman." Many of them commented that they most enjoyed Ms. Kinnally's science presentation, and one student mentioned that she didn't know that people actually studied "math anxiety."

The Day would not have been possible without the generous cooperation of the professors who gave the workshops, the professional women who gave the Career Talks, and the graduate students who helped throughout the day, especially with registration and grading the exams. We were happy to offer them all, as a gesture of appreciation, the same T-shirts and mugs we gave to the participating students and teachers.

We made the T-shirts and mugs with a slogan borrowed from an SK Day article in the AWM Newsletter: "Math empowers women," "Women empower math." Everybody liked them. Teachers and students also received a copy of AWM's Careers That Count, and the teachers received a copy of the AMS book She Does Math: Real-Life Problems from Women on the Job. Since we had been expecting more schools to attend the event, we had extra copies to give the students as door prizes.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

The Second (hopefully annual!) University of Alaska Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day was scheduled for October 17, 1998. This year we were careful to check the national ACT and SAT testing schedules so that junior and senior girls would not be faced with a testing conflict. All of the area high school teachers received a packet of information about the activity. In addition, each girl who participated last year and had not graduated was contacted.

The organization of the event went smoothly. There were 30 volunteers who were willing to do anything to help make the event a success. We held several planning meetings and set a registration deadline to help us plan activities appropriate to those who signed up. Unlike last year, we did not request that the girls have completed a particular mathematics level. Consultations with area high school teachers had confirmed that the girls who could most benefit from this program are those who were just starting out in high school mathematics. We received about 65 registration forms and were surprised at the variety of math levels of the girls. The range was from pre-algebra to calculus III.

We are hoping this is not a Sonia Kovalevsky trend, but for the second year in a row we received our first major snow of the year the night before the event. The roads were extremely treacherous, and many of the registrants were unable to attend. The 30+ girls who were able to attend were very enthusiastic. Due to the numbers of girls who actually made it and the variation in mathematics levels among these girls, we hastily changed the order of the day.

We had planned to break the day up into alternate small and large group presentations as we had done very successfully last year. We rescheduled the events of the day and left the girls as one large group for the first activity, which involved paper geometry and unit origami. We used two excellent references for these activities: Patty Paper Geometry by Michael Serra and Unfolding Mathematics with Unit Origami by Betsy Franco. We chose this as a starting activity because it is accessible and understandable to all math levels and allows mathematical investigation at several levels. At the end of the scheduled time period for this event, it was obvious that none of the girls wanted to change activities, so we changed our program to accommodate them. We broke every hour to introduce a new activity, and the girls were free either to change activities or to continue with the current. Most switched at least once throughout the day, and all thought this was a great way to share activities and learn. Other activities included units on fractals, tessellations, inversions, and mathematical puzzle creation and problem-solving. (Final tally ê over 1400 pieces of origami paper consumed!!)

Our T-shirt theme for this year was very successful! We wanted to choose a T-shirt that would encourage people who did not attend the event to ask questions about it. So we made a puzzle T-shirt centered around p. The front of the shirt had 17 different graphical "puzzles" involving p. The solutions were on the back of the shirt in random order. The girls loved the shirts and spent a considerable amount of time working on solving the puzzles before looking on the back of the shirt to solve the more difficult ones. Follow-up conversations with the girls since the event indicate that the shirts do achieve the desired result of getting people to ask questions and talk about SK Day!

Before leaving for the day, the girls were asked to fill out survey forms. On one form, the name was optional and on the other we asked for their names. Most felt comfortable enough to put their name on both sheets. They were overwhelmingly supportive and enthusiastic. The girls traded their exit surveys for prizes at the end of the day. The prizes consisted of mathematics puzzles and games.

We (the volunteers) learned a lot about what works and doesn't work with high school girls, particularly with respect to advertising an event. Word of mouth works ... teacher recruitment doesn't! The biggest difficulty we faced was the mathematical diversity of the girls who attended. Had we known in advance (as desired) the number of girls coming
and their mathematical backgrounds, we could have accom-modated each group; as it was we had to come up with the best range of events we could. All were welcome, and all want to come back next year.

This summary cannot convey the enthusiasm of the girls and the bonding that took place. Most of the girls volunteered to help out with the two Middle School Mathematics Days planned for middle school girls. These events are being sponsored by a grant through the MAA from the Tensor Foundation. This will be a great way to contact our next group of SK Day participants. It was a fun event and will be bigger and better next year if our funding is renewed. We are working towards becoming self-sufficient. IBM donated some prizes this year which were very popular. The success of the program can be seen in the smiles in the photo!

Quotes from the surveys:

I had a blast. This was the most fun I've ever had with math. The relaxed atmosphere really helped, no pressure.

This year's program was even better than last year's.

I will be here next year. Great job! Keep it up.

It was a well put together and very enjoyable day.

I had a very very very wonderful time and enjoyed doing the origami and having the pizza. I hope to come back next year.

Last longer next time. Time flies.

I really thought this was going to turn out a lot more school-like. I liked it.

This is a great way to spend a Saturday.

I didn't know what I would do here today, but it was a good surprise that I didn't have to take a test.

Wright State University

On October 16, 1998, Wright State University celebrated its first Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day with presentations by women in mathematics-based careers and opportunities for participants to do mathematics and statistics problems together. Female high school and undergraduate mathematics students and several high school teachers and university faculty member participated in a day of discussion and problem-solving with the goal of encouraging young women to continue their study of mathematics and to pursue career opportunities in mathematics and related fields.

The day began with a warm welcome, including a brief biography of Sonia Kovalevsky, from Dr. Joanne Dombrowski, Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at WSU. An energetic keynote address by Dr. Aparna Higgins, Department of Mathematics, University of Dayton, was a wonderful mix of mathematics and motivation. We did some problems from voting theory and a bit of graph theory, and we learned that proving a problem cannot be solved is as much of a victory as finding a solution. Now primed and ready to enlist, we heard from four women who use mathematics in four very different careers. They not only described the type of problems they solve on the job but also brought problems for us to work on together.

Dr. Navah Langmeyer's description of cryptology and a cryptic description of her work with the National Security Agency added intrigue and more excitement to the day. Participants worked in mixed groups of high school and university students, teachers and faculty members. We examined the bar codes that the post office prints on mailed envelopes to see how far we could get in breaking the code. Lisa Stabler, Manager of Quality Assurance and Reliability, described how she uses problem solving strategies and statistical methods to manage people and maintain engineering quality for Delphi Chassis Systems of North America, a major producer of anti-lock brake systems for automobiles. Stacie Taylor, a consultant for the Wright State University Statistical Consulting Center, provided an overview of studies and experiments from a variety of fields that she has worked on for clients. We worked on a statistical process control problem. Jennifer Whitestone is an entrepreneur and an engineer. She is president of Total Contact, Inc., which designs and produces face masks that improve the healing process for burn victims. Jennifer began this company three years ago and just sold her first large system to a major research hospital in the United States. We handled a face mask, and we compared two models for determining the percentage of body area burned. All of the speakers except for Dr. Langmeyer are from the Dayton area and all offered to continue networking with the students.

The afternoon workshops provided an opportunity to work on problems for a more extended period of time. Dr. Langmeyer led participants through more in-depth code-breaking using inverse matrices. Dr. Kathy Beal, a research statistician with a background in zoology, led participants through an activity in which a wolf population is followed through its cycles of growth and decline using descriptive statistics. Participants selected one of those two workshops.

Participants were eleven female high school students from three high schools accompanied by three female teachers and one parent (who came to support her daughter in high school but also to gather information for her older daughter, a math major at another university). Nine female undergraduate math majors from Wright State participated in the activities in addition to mingling with our guests and serving as role models and information sources for the high school students. Four WSU faculty members who planned the event and one professor emeritus were present to greet and meet with the guests and participate in the problem-solving activities. The department chair stayed on after her welcoming remarks to participate. One other current faculty member joined us for lunch and helped to make the students and teachers feel even more welcome during this informal sharing opportunity.

Participants told us that they liked learning about different career options and applications of mathematics. They liked the variation in speakers and topics. They liked the hands-on nature of the activities. They loved the codebreaking sessions.

Participants wanted more time doing mathematics. They suggested that we send out more specific information prior to the event. (We sent a cover letter describing the general purpose of the day and the type of speakers and activities, but we did not list names or affiliations of speakers on the material sent out to schools.) Suggestions for content were: more problems, what students can do in high school to prepare, have speakers review different fields, more history of women in mathematics.

We asked specific questions about the schedule because we were new at planning an event like this for students and teachers. We were concerned that the low turnout might be related to the schedule length or day of the week. We should not be surprised that our participants suggested Fridays from 8:30 to 1:30; they attended our SK Day on a Friday from 8:30 to 2:00. One teacher did suggest two professional meetings we should schedule around.

We were disappointed with the low number of high school teachers and students who participated in our Day. We had hoped to attract fifty and we only had fifteen. We had sent two hundred announcements to teachers, and about a fourth of these were addressed to teachers whom we know. We thought we had avoided the obvious conflicts with school holidays and teachers' meetings. Two days before our event, we learned about a scheduling conflict that we believe accounts for the low turnout. The Greene County Career Center hosted a day-long conference on professions that require math, science or technological skills. The event was held at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, within two miles of our campus, and 250 girls from grades nine through eleven attended.

The most difficult part of hosting this event was selecting speakers. We read and agreed with the advice from AWM that we include as presenters women who use mathematics in their work but do not work at academic institutions. Being academicians, most of our colleagues are working at academic institutions, so it took a bit of brainstorming and networking to create a slate of presenters from a variety of workplaces. We did enlist an academician as our keynote presenter because we knew she would be spirited and set the tone we wanted for the day. We were also very fortunate to have a NSA mathematician as a presenter and workshop facilitator. Our participants thoroughly enjoyed her presentations. Because it was our first SK Day, we enlisted members of our own faculty to do afternoon workshops.

It was fortunate that we had scheduled our own colleagues as workshop leaders, because we were then able to be flexible and react to the low participant numbers by cancelling two of the planned workshops. We did this a few days before the event, and explaining our predicament to our own colleagues was not as awkward as it would have been with presenters we didn't know as well.

We are proud of the presenters we did schedule. The participants were able to meet and work with wonderful female role models. We are also proud of the support that participants had from our male colleagues who were present and actively involved in the sessions for the entire day. This sends a strong message to our current and future female mathematics majors.

The involvement of nine undergraduate female mathematics majors in our SK Day is an example of serendipity and enthusiastic success. Originally enlisted as assistants to help us host a crowd of high school students and teachers and escort them between activities, our undergraduates ended up playing a more important role as participants! Even though the "crowd" of registrants didn't materialize, we decided that un-inviting our undergraduates would be rude. Instead we let them know that they didn't have to work to earn their keep that day and they could help us most by joining in all of the sessions and working in small groups with the high school guests. As it turned out, the undergraduates benefited as much as the high school students, and we encourage other institutions to invite undergraduate to participate in SK Days. Our faculty could mingle with and show support for our undergraduates. Our undergraduates could meet and begin to network with women in mathematics. One of our undergraduates has even been in touch with Dr. Langmeyer about career opportunities at the NSA.

We will have to do a better job of advertising our next SK Day, but we did have an interview with a reporter from our university's public relations office that resulted in a news release being sent out to area radio and print media. This resulted in a taped telephone interview with a public radio station and on-air announcements.

The overwhelmingly positive response from our participants encourages us to apply for funds for another SK Day. We hope to repeat what we did well and fix what we did not. To enlist more participants, we plan two major changes. First, we will coordinate with the Greene County Career Center, planners of the other "women in math and science" day, so that we do not compete for participants again. Second, in addition to a large scale mailing announcing the day, we will engage several local teachers as disseminators of information and invitations. We will visit with about ten local high school teachers who either participated this year or whom we know well from our department's outreach activities. Early in our planning process, we will get their advice about scheduling and then later ask them to share information and announcements about the day with colleagues in the district. We hope that this more personal touch to the advertising process will help us draw more participants.

Participants and speakers were provided with conference pads (provided at a significant discount by the Barnes & Noble campus bookstore), "Science and Mathematics: The Key to a Brighter Future" key rings with lights (compliments of the WSU College of Science and Mathematics), WSU pens (compliments of the campus bookstore) and pencils (compliments of the WSU Office of Admissions). There were also five "door prizes" for the afternoon workshop about wolves ê key rings with a picture of the new WSU "Raider" mascot, a wolf.

AWM/NSA grant funds also provided student and teacher (and parent) participants with a copy of each of the following publications about careers: Careers that Count (from AWM), Careers in the Mathematical Sciences (from the MAA), More Careers in the Mathematical Sciences (also from MAA), and Careers in Statistics and Women in Statistics (from the American Statistical Association).

Also, our department has many copies of some older, but still informative, flyers: The Math in High School You'll Need for College and You Will Need Math (from the MAA), and each participant was given one or the other of these. Teachers were encouraged to take extra copies of the booklets and brochures.