Labs offer math contest for middle, high school students

Contact: Kevin Roark, camerahead@lanl.gov, (505) 665-0582 (00-142)

Recent News Los Alamos scientist named Asian American Engineer of the Year Los Alamos scientist featured in NASA science update Los Alamos muon detector could thwart nuclear smugglers Wojciech H. Zurek named Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar Four Los Alamos physicists honored by American Physical Society Los Alamos National Laboratory organizations earn seven out of 13 NNSA Pollution Prevention awards Carter Hydrick returns to the Bradbury Science Museum Feb. 15 Laboratory supports summer science program New NASA IBEX mission to carry Los Alamos instrument Beason takes top threat reduction post at Los Alamos

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 26, 2000 -- Budding mathematicians are invited to compete in the "Go Figure" math contest, to be held in Farmington and Los Alamos on Saturday, Nov. 4.

The contest is sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and California. The contest is open to students in grades 7 through 12. Interested students are welcome to take the test on their own initiative, regardless of sponsorship. Parents are especially encouraged to have their children participate.

The contest will take place in the Computer Science Building, Room 7103, at the San Juan College in Farmington. The college is joining the laboratories as a sponsor for the contest. Locally, the contest will be held at Los Alamos Middle School, Room 112. Registration begins at 9 a.m.; the competition will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Participants should bring sharpened pencils. Calculators are not allowed.

Although formal pre-registration is not required for the contest, teachers are encouraged to register students by sending electronic mail to Joe Vigil at Los Alamos at jlv@lanl.gov

"The goal of the Go Figure competition is to identify young people with talent in mathematics," said Vigil, a science education specialist with the Los Alamos Education Program Office. "Many of these students may not demonstrate a latent talent in math in the usual ways, so their talent goes unrecognized."

Mathematics and algebra are the building blocks for all the scientific disciplines," Vigil said. "Without the foundation of mathematics, a student’s opportunities are limited."

"Problems for the contest will range from easy to challenging, but most require only basic arithmetic. Some problems are designed to test the contestants’ ingenuity and their ability to apply what they have learned. A prize will be awarded within each grade level and the top ten percent will receive letters of congratulations. Winners’ names also will be posted on the World Wide Web.

A sample test is available at http://set.lanl.gov/programs/learning/Math/Contests/samptest.htm. Similar tests are available at http://www.math.okstate.edu/~hsc/.

The Go Figure competition is part of a two year-old effort called The Web of Learning which seeks new ways to use the World Wide Web to aid in science and math education, Vigil said.

The Web of Learning site at http://set.lanl.gov/programs/learning, gives students a chance to compete in solving challenging math problems based on a book that is also available on the Web, algebra through problem solving, by Abraham Hillman and Gerald Alexanderson.

For more information on "Go Figure" or the Web of Learning, contact Joe Vigil at 505-665-7917. Go Figure is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

More news releases from the Science and Technology Base Program (STB)