Mathcounts in the Bronx Competition Feb 11, 2014
The “Mathcounts in the Bronx!” competition is scheduled for the Faculty Dining Room in the MusicBuilding at LehmanCollege on Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014 from 3PM to 7PM.
The competition is the national Mathcounts program to stimulate interest in mathematics among middle school students (grades 6, 7, and 8). The program provides materials supporting math clubs and other math related school activities and provides the framework for a national mathematics competition similar in structure to the National spelling Bee.
Participating schools this year are CIS 303, Horace Mann Middle School, MS223 School of Finance and Technology, Twin Parks Upper/I.S.229, and Riverdale Country School. The top three schools from the Bronx competition will advance to the New YorkState competition at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY on March 15, 2014. The top four competitors at the NYS competition will advance to the National Finals in Orlando on May 9, 2014.
The Bronx Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers sponsors and organizes the annual Mathcounts competition for Bronx middle schools students. LehmanCollege provides the space for the competition. And all the work to make it happen is done by volunteers.
More volunteers are needed to help run this and future competitions. No math skills are needed of the volunteers. If you are able to help, please contact Gee Eng at mathcounts@BxNSPE.org.
Why should you help?
The headlines tell the story. American students are falling behind their global competitors in the critical areas of math and science. As politicians and educators debate the issue, the trend continues to be negative. To reverse this trend, more of us need to get involved.
Supporting Mathcounts is one way to get involved. Learn more about the program at www.mathcounts.org. Find out if your local schools participate in Mathcounts and other math enrichment programs. If not, demand that they do participate. And then volunteer to support the ongoing activities.
While Mathcounts is the prime focus of this article, two other local programs with similar objective deserved to be mentioned. The New York Math Circle (www.nymathcircle.org) provides a math enrichment program to supplement math education. There is a tuition – so consider sponsoring a deserving student with financial hardship.
Another worthy program is SPMPS – Summer Program in Mathematical Problem Solving. SPMPS is geared to provide math enrichment to deserving students in underserved NYC public schools. The program is free for students who are accepted. If you are mathematically inclined, you can volunteer to be a mentor. Otherwise, you can make a donation at their website so they can serve more students (https://www.artofproblemsolving.org/spmps/)
And of course, Mathcounts in the Bronx on Feb 11, 2014. Hope to hear from you.
Gee Eng, PE