Math Awareness Month - Virginia Tech

"Despite the increasing importance of mathematics to the progress of our economy and society, enrollment in mathematics programs has been declining at all levels of the American educational system. Yet the application of mathematics is indispensable in such diverse fields as medicine, computer sciences, space exploration, the skilled trades, business, defense, and government. To help encourage the study and utilization of mathematics, it is appropriate that all Americans be reminded of the importance of this basic branch of science to our daily lives."

From 1995 through 1998, the Math Department at Virginia Tech sponsored various activities to coincide with what was then Math Awareness Week. In 1999, we expanded our emphasis to include the entire month of April. Our activities in celebration of Math Awareness Month usually include the following:
(1) A poster contest for students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade in public and private schools in Montgomery County and Giles County Virginia. The poster contest focuses on a chosen theme. (2) A public lecture for our college students and the entire community that is related to the Math Awareness Month theme for the current year.

This year, in April 2008, we celebrate our thirteenth annual poster contest with the theme "MATH AND TRANSPORTATION ". This theme was chosen by the Mathematics Awareness Month committee of the Math Department at Virginia Tech.

Each year a theme for Math Awareness Month is selected by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, an organization of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The theme chosen for Math Awareness Month 2008 is Mathematics and Voting .