ASU Mid-South to host Math Contest March 5

ASU Mid-South to host Math Contest March 5

Registration Deadline Set for Feb. 26

ASU Mid-South If a new automobile costing $13,900 depreciates each year by 17.2 percent, what is the value three years after it is purchased?

Junior and senior high students who think they can answer that question will want to participate in the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Mathematics Contest at Arkansas State University Mid-South on Saturday, March 5.

Mid-South is serving as a competition site for the tenth consecutive year.

“We are pleased to provide this academically- stimulating opportunity and look forward to great participation from the students of our region,” said Regional Director Anthony Wilkinson, lead faculty for Mathematics at ASU Mid-South. “It is a blessing to see our young students prove they are competent in the area of mathematics. Being proficient in math is essential to the growing STEM majors on college campuses.”

More than 140 students from Earle, East Junior High, Marion, West Memphis High, West Junior High, and Rivercrest High School participated in the 2015 regional event.

Students in public, private, and charter schools are eligible to participate in the contest, as are home-schooled students.

The subject-area tests will reflect the vision set forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and the Arkansas Department of Education adopted frameworks. Questions willgenerally reflect problem solving and conceptual understanding rather than routine manipulation.

High school students currently enrolled in Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus, Statistics, and Calculus are eligible to take the corresponding exam. The competition fee is $2 per student, and the registration deadline is February 26. For more information on the local contest, please contact Wilkinson at (870) 733-6862 or awilkinson@midsouthcc.edu.

Participants will sign in between 9 and 9:30 a.m. in the Wilson Conference Center in Magruder Hall on MSCC’s South Campus, and subject exams will be conducted at 10 a.m. in the Southland Greyhound Science Center.

After the tests and before the results are announced, students will have the opportunity to participate in a handson educational activity coordinated by students from the Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Following the exercise, at approximately 12:30 p.m., math contest awards will be presented.

First-, second- and third-place finishers in the regional competition will receive trophies and will qualify to participate in the state competition, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 23 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Top finishers from the local contest have often performed well in the state competition. In 2013, David Zhong of West Memphis High School earned an honorable mention in Geometry competition. In 2012, Rachel Reece of WMHS did the same in the statewide Statistics contest.

Other top finishers from the Mid-South contest may also have the opportunity to advance, depending on how their scores compare with students in other regions throughout the state.

Winners in the state competitions in Algebra I and Geometry will receive graphing calculators. The top three finishers in the state competition in Algebra II, Trigonometry/Pre-calculus, Statistics, and Calculus will be awarded scholarships for $600, $400, and $300, respectively, to the colleges or universities of their choice. The winners of the state contests receive scholarships totaling $5,200.

Honorable mention certificates will be given to participants eliminated from the top three positions by tiebreaker items. All of Mid-South’s full-time mathematics faculty will be involved in the regional event, and adjunct instructors have also been encouraged to participate.

ACTM is a professional association that supports and encourages good mathematics teaching. The organization’s mission is to provide vision and leadership in improving the teaching and learning of mathematics so that every student is ensured of an equitable, standards-based mathematics education, and every mathematics teacher is ensured the opportunity to grow professionally.

The answer to the automobile depreciation problem? All good math students know it is $7,890 (ACTM 2014 Algebra II contest).

From Diane Hampton