MATHCOUNTS, October 6th with The Spurs

It is that time off year again.  We are in the planning/organizing stages of our 9th Annual MATHCOUNTS/ SPURS Mathletes in Action competition on October 6th at the AT&T center.  I'm a little stressed because my task list for this is long.  Each task is not entirely difficult, but some of it should be timed well, some of it involves decision making, some of it cost money and I have to be careful with the MATHCOUNTS finances to be sure we can still host our official competition on February 9th.  And then there is the matter of writing the tests for the competition.    Many of these task take little time but the test writing is definitely a time commitment. 

 
You probably have heard me mention MATHCOUNTS before.  I bet you could draw the conclusion that it is something that somehow relates to MATH.  And furthermore you might have an idea that there is an engineering link since I was in Engineering.  I am currently one of only a few Domestic Engineers with a Professional Engineering license.

MATHCOUNTS is not new. I participated in 1989 under my MATHCOUNTS coach at Galvez Elementary, Rhonda Harvey.  Gary Agena and Brandon Beck were on my team and if you know Todd Pevey, Eric Johnson and Eric Robinson, they were all on the team for Prairieville in the same year.  I was surprised when I recently started volunteering with MATHCOUNTS that when I competed, it was still relatively new. Our team won fourth place that year.  the trophies haven't changed. 

MATHCOUNTS is a national enrichment, club and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement through grassroots involvement.  MATHCOUNTS was founded in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation. Each year, more than 250,000 students are exposed to MATHCOUNTS materials and activities in their schools. Approximately 40,000 students from  more than 6,000 schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and State Department and Department of Defense schools worldwide. Since MATHCOUNTS began in 1983, over 6 million students have participated.

MATHCOUNTS is one of the country's largest and most successful education partnerships involving volunteers, educators, industry sponsors and students. President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald W. Reagan have all recognized MATHCOUNTS in White House ceremonies. The MATHCOUNTS program has also received two White House citations as an outstanding private sector initiative. Particularly exciting for our Mathletes® were the hour-long ESPN programs on each of the National Competitions from 2003-2005. In 2011 the National Competition returned to ESPN with a live broadcast on ESPN3.

MATHCOUNTS competitions are designed to be completed in approximately three hours. Each competition consists of four parts: the Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Rounds. The Sprint Round has 30 questions, and students have 40 minutes to complete them. The Target Round consists of 8 questions, which are distributed to the students two at a time. Students have 6 minutes to complete each pair of problems. The Team Round has 10 problems for the team to work together within the 20 minute time limit. The top 25% of individuals, up to a maximum of 10, proceed to the Countdown Round, an oral round in which students compete head-to-head.


 The countdown round is always one of the most fun parts of the competition.  The intensity as the two mathletes face off head-to-head to race to place is great and the intelligence of these competitors is astounding.  When we do this at the AT&T center the competition takes place on the court.  100 6-foot tables and 400 chairs where Tim Duncan works all for these mathletes.  We use the game clock for time keeping and when time is up you better cover your ears!!! It goes from pretty much complete silence to a deafening blow of the horn.  No doubt! TIME IS UP!!!!

The SPURS Coyote makes a guest appearance to help us hand out awards and every mathlete and their coach gets a ticket to the game that evening. 


I am excited, just also a little overwhelmed.  We have a good homeschool day here, but at the end of the day I still have so much to do.  It will all be fine.  I have such an awesome team. And thankfully one of our previous leaders is back from service in the Peace Corps so this year will be the best ever for the Bexar Chapter. I am so thankful that the committee that  puts this competition on together is so awesome, loyal and trustworthy that I don't have to worry about their tasks.  The committee is comprised of primarily engineers who have a heart for service and for cultivating an interest in mathematics and engineering in the minds of the talented middle schoolers that we host this for. 

A few years ago we brilliantly added Mary. 
 Mary is not and engineer.  She is super woman.  Her role in her full time job is administrative but her ability has so much depth that she can do the administrative work of 9 in a jiffy.  Jiffy meaning fast but she is also efficient and diligent.  And when I call her to add something to her list she only ever says one of two things, "Yes" or "I already did".  It is nice to not have to worry if our scoring software is up to date, if the  coaches have been up to date, if the volunteer list is being compiled, if we have a place to meet with our committee, and the biggest one Mary rules is if the test will be graded and scores ranked so we can hand out awards and get outta there before the Basket Ball team needs their court back.