All Girls / All Math offered two sessions, June 24-29 and July 8-13. Fourteen girls participated in each session where they attended six hours of class per day. After a little homework in the evenings, the girls enjoyed a variety of recreational activities. At night, the girls stayed in UNL's Neihardt Residence Hall under the supervision of a graduate student, Melissa Desjarlais.

For each session, Dr. Wendy Hines of UNL led a course on Chaos Theory and another UNL faculty member, Dr. Judy Walker, taught a Coding Theory class. According to Hines, the Chaos and Codes courses incorporate relatively complex aspects of mathematics largely absent from standard high school curriculum. However, these topics may be grasped without any prior knowledge of trigonometry or calculus, enabling girls from diverse backgrounds to participate in the camp. "We chose these areas because it is possible to start at the beginning of the subject and quickly advance to some very interesting, deep mathematics," Dr. Hines explained. Dr. Walker and Dr. Hines carefully construct the curriculum to make it accessible. "I thought about what I wanted them to understand in the end and then I thought about what I needed to tell them to get them there," Dr. Hines explained.

In Chaos Theory, Dr. Hines began with iterative models describing phenomena such as population growth and the presence of medication in the bloodstream. Focusing on the logistic model, a series of activities demonstrated how varying the growth rate alters the nature of the population change. For certain growth rates, the population has cycles lasting 2 years, 4 years, or 16 years. However, sometimes, the population doesn't behave according to a repetitive pattern and predictions become precarious.

In Codes Class, Dr. Walker and her students charted a journey through the history of secret codes. The students discussed mathematical methods for solving the Spartan Scytale and a "shift cipher" used by Julius Caesar.

Then, the class advanced to the modern RSA system of public key cryptography. Dr. Walker explained that RSA lurks behind every Internet banking transaction and online credit card expenditures. In efforts to secure privacy, RSA incorporates number theory such as modular arithmetic and fast exponentiation. On the last day, the girls sent emails to each other using RSA to code and decode the messages.

The experience enabled participants to form a community of mathematics enthusiasts with other girls, UNL faculty, and professional mathematicians. Dr. Theresa Strei from the National Security Agency traveled from Washington D.C. to provide a presentation to the girls. She later joined them in the evening for a barbeque at the home of Dr. Walker. During the classes, the students worked in groups and obtained individualized interaction with UNL faculty and graduate students. The personal connection helped to stimulate interest in math. "The professors really connected with me and made math fun," said one participant.

Evening recreational activities enabled the girls to relax and further develop their new friendships. However, even in leisure, the influence of mathematics remained. Prior to an excursion at the Lincoln Municipal Airport where the Young Eagles Club provided free flights in 4-seat planes, Dr. Hines provided a brief session on the mathematics of air flight. As their planes left the runway, the girls were able to relate math to the larger world while enjoying a unique experience.

Hines lauded the success of the fifth annual camp. "I am always amazed when I look back at where the students started and where they ended up… It's the ideal teaching experience-14 smart, interested, enthusiastic, inquisitive and responsible students," she said. For information about next year's camp, send an email to agam@math.unl.edu.

• Return to Patterns Fall 2001 Main Page