Experiences of a Beginning
MATHCOUNTS® Coach
Dr. Kevin W. Hopkins
Southwest Baptist University
Why did I start?
• Familiar with other contests, even organized some (http://www.sbuniv.edu/~khopkins/tourney.htm for information on Jan. 29, 2005 contest).
• Saw MATHCOUNTS® National Finals on ESPN in 2003.
• Had vested interest—both at BMS and at Summerscape.
•
Decided
I had the God given skills and interest to get involved.
• Read MATHCOUNTS® site (http://www.mathcounts.org) to see what can be accomplished.
How MATHCOUNTS®
Works
•
After
several months of coaching, participating schools select students to
compete
individually or as part of a team in one of more than 500 written and
oral
competitions held nationwide and in U.S. schools overseas.
•
The first
competitions are held at the local level in February with winners
progressing
to state competitions in March.
•
Results at
the state level determine the top four individuals and top coach who
earn the
honor of representing their state or overseas team at the national
finals.
•
At all
levels, MATHCOUNTS® challenges
students' math skills, develops their
self-confidence and rewards them for their achievements.
Why Participate in MATHCOUNTS®
•
Each
year, more than 500,000 students participate in MATHCOUNTS®
at the
school level.
•
Those
who do tell us that their experience as a Mathlete is often one of the
most
memorable and fun experiences of their middle school years.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
provides students with the following benefits:
•
A
challenging and fun activity that helps them in their math classes.
•
A
chance to share common interests with new and often long-lasting
friends.
•
An
opportunity to meet students from other schools.
•
The
experience of developing teamwork skills.
•
A
chance to vie for scholarships and prizes.
•
A
sense of accomplishment that comes from setting and achieving goals.
•
An
opportunity to explore mathematics and mathematics-related careers.
•
A
chance to explore cool mathematics that isn't always taught in middle
school
classrooms.
Why MATHCOUNTS®
Works
•
MATHCOUNTS®
motivates and
rewards students by fostering teamwork and a competitive spirit.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
is more than
a competition. It involves students and teachers in year-long coaching
sessions
and helps students at all levels improve their problem-solving skills.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
builds math
skills, promotes logical thinking and sharpens students' analytical
abilities.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
provides America's
middle school teachers with creative, state-of-the-art curriculum
materials,
free of charge.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
introduces
students to math-related careers through contacts with engineers and
other
professionals who serve as volunteers.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
is
educator-driven. Materials and activities are structured to meet
student needs,
as identified by educators.
How did I start?
•
MATHCOUNTS®
sends a Handbook to every middle school across the country. It is also available online at
www.mathcounts.org.
•
MATHCOUNTS®
has old contests available, some online, some for purchase from the
website—can
use for classroom (allowed in their copyright information).
•
For a
beginning coach
this is enough to get started.
•
Found a
connection at Bolivar Middle School in 2003-04.
•
Found
opportunity at
Summerscape, June 2004.
I did more
research
•
Searched
web for other contest and problem archives (more on this later).
•
Located
books (and am still looking—more later).
What did I do?
•
Met
twice a month with Math Contest Club.
•
Had
a summer class at Summerscape,
a
program at Drury University for gifted 6th-9th
graders.
•
Had
the students look at problems and then tried to generalize the results
as we
went over them.
How does this fit into the context of Standards and Grade Level Expectations?
•
Goal 1-
Students in
Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to
gather,
analyze and apply information and ideas.
•
1.6-
Students will
demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability
to
discover and evaluate patterns and relationships in information, ideas
and
structures.
•
Goal 3-
Students in
Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to
recognize and
solve problems.
•
3.3-
Students will
demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability
to
develop and apply strategies based on one’s own experience in
preventing or
solving problems.
•
3.6-
Students will
demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability
to
examine problems and proposed solutions from multiple perspectives.
•
Problem
solving-a
valuable life skill (especially problem solving under pressure) (see
Art of
Problem Solving-Volume 2-preface).
•
Develop
creativity-needed for solving problems (see Art of Problem
Solving-Volume
2-preface).
Grade Level Expectations
•
I.1, Grades
5-8--By the end of grade 8, all students should know a variety of
problem-solving strategies (such as organizing data, drawing a picture,
looking
for a pattern, writing an expression using a variable).
•
I.2, Grades
5-8--By the end of grade 8, all students should know computational
strategies
with whole numbers, decimals, fractions, and integers.
• IV.1, Grades 5-8-- By the end of grade 8, all students should know problems may be looked at in more than one way.
How does this fit into the context of Professional Development Event Strand Matrix?
•
Strand 1
Curriculum
–
1.1.
Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy
•
A. Knowledge
of content
• B. Knowledge of prerequisite relationships
•
Strand 2
Instructional Practices
–
2.3.
Establishing a Culture for Learning
•
A.
Importance of the
content
•
B. Student
pride in work
•
C.
Expectations for
learning and achievement
•
D. Teacher
interaction
with students
•
E. Student
interaction
•
Strand 4
Leadership
–
4.4. Growing
and Developing Professionally
•
A.
Enhancement of
content knowledge and pedagogical skill
•
B. Service
to the
profession
–
4.5. Showing
Professionalism
•
A. Service to students
More on resources
•
Other
Contests, many of which have archived tests.
•
See
http://www.sbuniv.edu/~khopkins/tournoth.html
for those I have discovered.
• Other resources-books (given at website as well).
• Could do a search at Amazon.com (or a similar site) for any of the following books.
• See what else people have been buying in the same vein.
• The more serious you want to coach, the more resources you might want to get.
• Can only coach as seriously as the kids want to compete.
• NCTM book-Children are Mathematical Problem Solvers, other NCTM books on math teaching and journals (see http://www.nctm.org for catalog).
•
Art
of Problem Solving, Vol 1 and Vol 2
•
See
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/
for more info.
•
This
website offers on-line classes to serious MATHCOUNTS®
students.
•
Creative
Problem Solving in School Mathematics
•
Math
Olympiad Contest Problems
• http://www.moems.org/orders.htm
• Math Contest Preparation
• http://www.mathandchess.citymaker.com/page/page/1234603.htm
•
A
book written by a coach arranged topically (may no longer be available
at his website?)
•
Has
many specialized formulas.
• Math League-Math Contests
• http://www.mathleague.com/books.htm
• CountDown, by Steve Olson-reviewed in August 2004 Notices of the AMS.
• Available at Amazon.com (and other places I’m sure).
• Mathematics and Informatics Quarterly
How did it go?
•
Started
with about 15 (about half boys, half girls) at BMS—ended up with 6
going to
MATHCOUNTS®.
•
Had
problems with funding and students who were involved with other things.
•
Placement
at regional contests-had one student nearly place to go to State
MATHCOUNTS®.
Summerscape
•
Had
16 students.
• Evaluation results follow.
