David Gay likes to talk about the "power, excitement and beauty" of mathematics. He hopes his enthusiasm is infectious, particularly to undergraduate students who might consider a career in math if they understood how fascinating and useful it can be.

Math Awareness Week is one way of spreading the word about the wonders of math, says Gay, a UA math professor and a pioneer in mathematics education. The UA's Math Awareness Week, which has received RAIRE funding, is affiliated with the national Mathematics Awareness Month sponsored each spring by the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

What's the problem?
Math is much more than equations scribbled on a blackboard, but a lot of people don't see the "excitement" and "beauty" that Gay describes. The discipline's image problem has contributed to a shortage of math professionals, especially in teaching.

To "encourage the study and utilization of mathematics" and remind Americans of "the importance of this basic branch of science to our daily lives," President Ronald Reagan established Math Awareness Month in 1986. His proclamation bemoaned falling enrollments in mathematics programs and emphasized the discipline's importance "in such diverse fields as medicine, computer sciences, space exploration, the skilled trades, business, defense and government."

This is not a test
Gay's passion for mathematics has led to his involvement, year after year, in the UA's observance of Math Awareness Week. In 2001 he was the principal organizer.

"I'm interested in any effort to articulate mathematics," he says, "its power, excitement, and beauty ... its nature and usefulness to the public" in general, and to UA undergraduates in particular.

"Math Awareness Week gives them a chance to experience mathematics freely, in settings where they won't get tested. We want people to experience the wonder in mathematics. We want people to see that math can be fun. We want people to see that mathematics is used in many places -- some unexpected -- and that it affects people's lives profoundly."

The unexpected appears in several past Math Awareness Week themes, relating mathematics to medicine, the Internet, decision-making, manufacturing, imaging, and other fields. Last year's theme -- "mathematics and the sea" -- dealt largely with the ocean's effects on weather.

Think it will rain?
"Last year we had something every day," says Gay of the 2001 Math Awareness Week held March 31 through April 6. In addition to a workshop for high-school students, there were films, demonstrations, talks and displays. The Math Cats -- an organization of undergraduate math majors -- sponsored a contest to see who could most closely estimate "the number of fish in the C" -- that is, the number of fish-shaped crackers in a clear plastic bowl.

Presentation topics varied from the societal impacts of global warming to the ocean's role in the earth's climate. KOLD-TV meteorologist Tom Johnston explained the math-meteorology connection, which might not be immediately apparent to those who think predicting the weather is a guessing game. One of the demonstrations on weather phenomena included a short course in forecasting thunderstorms during the Sonoran Desert's summer monsoon season.

"Mathematics and the Genome" was the theme for 2002, and Math Awareness Week at the UA (April 5-12) featured a "Guess the Length of the Genome" contest plus exhibits, displays, and presentations on topics such as chromosome mapping and the field of genomics.