PIMS - ULethbridge Distinguished Speaker Series: Veselin Jungic

The Math Catcher Outreach program aims to promote mathematics and scholarship in general by encouraging elementary and high school students to recognize how math is used in everyday life and how it forms the basis for many of our daily decisions and life-long choices. The storytelling, puzzles, pictures, models, and hands-on activities encourage young people to enjoy math and help dispel myths that math is boring and abstract. The program has a strong First Nations component that includes creating learning resources in various First Nations languages and organizing and hosting educational events for Indigenous students. In this presentation, a brief history of the program will be provided along with a description of its components. An animated film from the Small Number series will be screened and an interactive web application inspired by the traditional Tla’amin basketry will be demonstrated.

Bio:

Veselin Jungic is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University. He is a 3M National Teaching Fellow and a recipient of several teaching awards, including the Canadian Mathematical Society Teaching Award and the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences Educational Award. Most of his research is in Ramsey theory and the field of mathematics education and outreach. Veselin has been teaching mathematics at the post-secondary level since 1978. He has authored and coauthored papers with numerous educational themes, mostly based on his own teaching practices.