Elton Graves

Francis Vigo Chapter Coordinator, MATHCOUNTS

American Mathematics Competitions:

 AMC 8

The AMC 8 is a national mathematics competition for students in grades 8 and below.  The exam is a 40 minute, 25 question exam with problems covering topics such as probability, estimation, percent, spatial visualization, everyday applications, reading and interpreting graphs.  Other topics may also be covered on the exam.

The exam in 2006 will be given at each participating school on Tuesday, November 14, 2006. 

Each participating school receives a copy of the contest and solutions, individual school results, school awards, an engraved school award plaque and the National Summary of Results.  In addition the top scoring student in each state receives a plaque. 

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology offers a $5,000, a $3,000, and a $2,000 renewable scholarships to the top three students from the state of Indiana.  In case of ties, the scholarships will be award on the basis of the scores the students receive on the AMC 10 exam.

For more information and online registration visit the AMC Competitions web site.

AMC 10 and AMC 12

The AMC 10 and AMC 12 or national mathematics competitions for students in grades 10 and under, and grades 12 and under respectively.  Both exams are 75 minutes in length and have 25 questions covering a wide range of high school mathematical topics excluding calculus.

Students who score 100 or more on the AMC 12, and students who do very well on the AMC 10, are invited to take the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME).  The AMC 12 and AIME are the first steps towards the selection of the United States Mathematical Olympiad Team which competes each year with teams from other countries in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). 

The AMC 10 and AMC 12 will be given on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, and Wednesday, February 21, 2007. 

For more information and online registration visit the AMC Competitions  website.

MATHCOUNTS is a team mathematics competition for students in grades 6,7,and 8.  Each school which participates selects a four person team.  The teams compete in regional, state, national competition.  Individual and team awards are given at each competition

Each competition is broken to three parts:

The Sprit Round is a 40 minute 30 problem exam in which the students work on problems individually.

The Target Round which consists of four 6 minute, 2 problem sets in which the students work individually.

The Team Round is a 20 minute, 10 problem exam in which the team members work together to find solutions. 

The Francis Vigo Chapter competition will include the popular Countdown Round.  Each school which enters the Chapter competition will be guaranteed that at least one of their students will be able to compete in the Countdown Round.

Dates for the MATHCOUNTS competitions are:

Vigo Chapter Competition:  February 19, 2007 at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Indiana State Competition:  If held at Rose-Hulman will be on March 3,2007.

For more information and online registration see the MATHCOUNTS  web page.

Fast Track Calculus (FTC) is an intensive five week calculus course for students who have completed a year of high school calculus.  During the course students will cover all the material that is normally taught in the Calculus I, Calculus II, and Calculus III courses at Rose-Hulman.  At the end of the course students will receive 15 hours of credit and will be allowed to enroll in the appropriate sophomore level mathematics courses.

To be eligible for Fast Track Calculus, students must have a score of 700 or more on the mathematics portion of the SAT or a score of 31 or more on the mathematics portion of the ACT.  The student must also have had a year of calculus.

Students who have been admitted to Rose-Hulman and who meet the above criteria are automatically sent an application form for Fast Track Calculus in early March.  To be considered for FTC the completed application form must be returned by the stated deadline, usually mid-April. 

For more information on Fast Track Calculus visit the Fast Track Calculus website.

As the 2006-2007 Program Chair for the Mathematics Division of ASEE, I would invite all interested members to submit papers of mathematical interest for the 2007 National ASEE Conference which will be held in Hawaii.  Papers in the following area are especially encouraged:  Integrating math, science, and engineering;  Outreach and K-12 mathematics education;  Freshmen programs;  Recruitment and retention of women and minorities;  Innovative instruction strategies in mathematics;  Integrating math into engineering curricula;  Multidisciplinary projects;  Facilitating communication between math, science, and engineering educators;  Innovative/advanced mathematical problem solving techniques;  Methods to better prepare students for the technical professions

 Abstracts, papers, and final papers, if accepted, must be submitted via the ASEE website using Smooth Paper.