Omaha Public Schools fifth-grade teacher Sondra Bravo will be presenting a workshop at the MoSAIC Festival, a traveling exhibit celebrating the Mathematics of Science, Art, Industry and Culture, which will visit the University of Nebraska-Lincoln 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 14 and 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Nebraska Union. She is presenting “Demuth and the Distributive Property” at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
The free public festival consists of lectures, hands-on workshops, short films and an art exhibit. Presentation topics will include origami, famed graphic artist M.C. Escher, tessellations, Persian mosaics, geometry and design, ceramics and quilting. Activities and workshops scheduled for Nov. 14 will feature mathematical content aimed at higher-level audiences, while those workshops on Nov. 15 are especially suited for families and students in grades 5-12.
Other featured presenters include Chris Palmer, a renowned digital fabrication lab manager at the University of California, Berkeley; David Reimann of Albion College; Reza Sarhangi of Towson University; and Violeta Vasilevska of Utah Valley University. UNL’s Jonathan Gregory, assistant curator of exhibitions at the International Quilt Study Center, and Sharon Kennedy, director of education at the Sheldon Museum of Art, will also present at the event.
The MoSAIC Festival, whose recent stops have included North Carolina State University and Portland State University, will move on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after its visit to UNL. It is sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the Bridges Organization and the Simons Foundation, with assistance from the UNL Department of Mathematics and the Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education.
For more information about the festival, visit http://scimath.unl.edu/conferences/mosaic. UNL’s Sunday with a Scientist event will be held at Morrill Hall on Nov. 15 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., which is also for students and families and free and open to the public.