The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) engages Morgan Hill children and teenagers in entertaining, competitive and challenging mathematical events. It sponsors groups ranging from the fourth and fifth grade Mathletics, to the middle school MATHCOUNTS program, high school math clubs and the Director's Circle (with outstanding math students coached by AIM executive director, Dr. Brian Conrey).
AIM, presently based in Palo Alto, will make its permanent home in Morgan Hill once its construction project is completed, which is anticipated in 2010.
AIM's math programs have encouraged many students to compete in the regional MATHCOUNTS contest and the national American Mathematics Competition, which has resulted in some students being invited to take the renowned American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), scheduled for March 17.
Talented teens, such as Mark Holmstrom (eighth grade but taking math at Live Oak), plus Sobrato's Jason Binn (12th grade) and Joshua Yip (11th grade), have recently been invited to take the AIME because they were ranked among the top 1 percent in the nation during the earlier American Mathematics Competition (AMC). (Last year, Live Oak ninth grader Bryant Gamboa placed in the top 1 percent and advanced to the AIME.) Joshua and Jason both scored 97.5 on the AMC-12 while Mark, as an eighth grader took the ninth and 10th grade tests (the AMC-10), scoring an amazing 135 (120 being the qualifying score).
Britton Middle School's MATHCOUNTS team, coached this year by math teacher Patricia Finck, enjoyed its third consecutive victory at the regional competition held in Monterey. Now, the group advances to the state competition to be held at University of the Pacific on March 28. MATHCOUNTS works with sixth to eighth grade students on a weekly basis from October to January and owes much of its success to AIM's MATHCOUNTS coordinator Dave Holmstrom. Previous math topics have included number theory, statistics, probability and multi-step word problems.
Live Oak and Sobrato high schools have math clubs that are supported by AIM, which provides speakers, registration fees and contest proctoring. Sobrato's Joshua Yip is the president of the Math and Science Club, advised by teacher Mr. Dybdahl while Live Oak's Peter Mains is president of Mu Alpha Theta, advised by teacher Ms. DeBenedetti. AIM Outreach Coordinator Lori Mains co-advises both math clubs.
Yip and Mains organize crucial parts of the upcoming Math Mardi Gras event by handling Web site pre-registration and providing technical support for Math Jeopardy and SET, a visual logic game. They also have coached middle school math teams and are currently working together to make a pseudorandom number generator, an extensive and abstract project that will be presented at the Synopsys Science Fair on March 18. AIM's Conrey is mentoring the students in this project.
Joshua Yip and other math club members apply math to scientific puzzles. Josh also teaches new mathematical concepts to his peers and the club works together to build robots and to levitate stuffed animals across the classroom using balloons and straws. (No human or mechanical hands allowed!) Additionally, Josh tutors students after school and sometimes during calculus class, helping his classmates when derivatives and integrals blend into messy math meshes.
Peter Mains has benefited from peer interaction and the tutelage of Conrey. Peter Mains intends to major in pure or applied mathematics in college. Mu Alpha Theta focuses on math problems ranging from studying competition-style questions, developing a math booth for younger students at the Math Mardi Gras and solving sudoku problems.
March Math Mardi Gras Madness: The next great Morgan Hill math event, the fourth annual AIM Math Mardi Gras, will be from 12 to 4 p.m. March 29 at the Morgan Hill Community Center.
Lori Mains, the co-originator of this event, remarked about the unique features of the math fair: participants share math concepts with other participants and design problems for students of various math competence levels.
Interested math students, grades 2-12, along with their entire families, can register for the event via www.mathmardigras.org. Math students will enjoy interactive math games, logic puzzles, Killer Sudoku, Rubik's Cube, SET and Math Jeopardy. Additionally, math books and games will be available for purchase.
Prizes, drawings and competitions will be held throughout the afternoon, culminating with an on-stage showdown from 3 to 4 p.m. The event even plans to crown its own Math Mardi Gras queens and kings.
For more information about AIM's Morgan Hill Math programs, please visit www.morganhillmath.org or contact Lori Mains at mains@aimath.org.
Math Mardi Gras
-What: Fourth annual AIM Math Mardi Gras
-Where: Morgan Hill Community Center
-When: 12 to 4 p.m. March 29
-Who: All math enthusiasts who want to play games such as logic puzzles, Killer Sudoku, Rubik's Cubes, SET and Math Jeopardy
-Details: www.mathmardigras.org
Catherine Connor
Catherine Connor Catherine Connor is a senior at Ann Sobrato High School. She writes a monthly youth column for the Morgan Hill Times. She can be reached at cthrnpm@aol.com.
POST A COMMENT
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this message board, but you may not participate.
Here are the full legal terms you agree to by using this comment form.
Hope flies again
