New Testimonials 4-2010

I’m very proud to post 3 new testimonials from some of our most accomplished math circle participants:

I’d like to thank Dr. Andreescu…for [his] time and efforts that made MMC such a wonderful experience for me. I have attended MMC since 2nd grade. I enjoyed the various lectures, learned a lot from the math professors that visited our circle and benefited from their insight into the world of math. I hope this program will continue.

-Michael Ma, 4th grade [Ed. In 2009 Michael had the unprecedented accomplishment of scoring a perfect AMC 10 and qualifying for the USAMO as a third grader.]

I have been attending the Metroplex Math Circle for a couple of years, and I think it is definetely worth my time. Dr. Andreescu gets amazing speakers with interesting topics to come educate us. I think this is a great program, and I hope it continues to attract new participants.

-Victor Zhou, 8th grade [Ed. In 2010 Victor astounded the audience, including Governor Rick Perry, by winning 5 countdown rounds in a row at the Texas state MATHCOUNTS competition.]

After having attending for a few years, I believe that the Metroplex Math Circle program has helped me much in my mathematical studies. The brilliant guest speakers and, of course, Dr. Andreescu, give great lectures in a way that is extremely helpful and also enjoyable to students like myself. I have thoroughly enjoyed the MMC experience and have also learned a lot.

-Robert Tung, 8th grade [Ed. In 2010 Robert was selected to represent Texas at the national MATHCOUNTS competition.]

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Purple Comet – Spring 2010 Results

The Purple Comet!  Math Meet just announced the results for their Spring 2010 Contest.  Congratulations to many of the teams from North Texas who distinguished themselves in this challenging contest.

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Prezi – Math is not linear

This presentation, “Math is not linear,” does a great job of summarizing why Math Circles are such a critical part of our students’ educations!

Math is not linear on Prezi

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April 17th – 100 ideas in 10 Geometry Problems Continued!

Last week’s presentation was well attended and so good that Dr. Andreescu has agreed to continue his talk this coming week!

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Top Teams 2010 Texas State MATHCOUNTS

They have recently announced the top 23 teams from this year’s Texas State MATHCOUNTS:

1. Fort Settlement Middle School
2. Harmony School of Excellence
3. Canyon Vista Middle School
4. First Colony Middle School
5. Westbrook Intermediate
6. Rice Middle School
7. Grisham Middle School
8. St. John’s School
9. Quail Valley Middle School #1
10. Keystone School
11. Trinity Valley School
12. Beckendorff Junior High
13. Frankford Middle School
14. Keller Middle School
15. Cedar Valley Middle School
16. Flour Bluff Middle School
17. West Ridge Middle School
18. Austin Area Homeschoolers
19. Cistercian Prepatory School
20. Schimelpfenig Middle School
21. St. Mark’s School of Texas
22. Friendswood Junior High School
23. Coppell Middle School West

In addition to the schools, many of the highest placing individuals have ties to Metroplex Math Circle and the Metroplex.  Patrick Pan (#1) is a past participant in Dr. Andreescu’s AwesomeMath Summer Camp.  Robert Tung (#4) and Victor Zhou (#10) represent Rice Middle School and have been frequent attendees of the Metroplex Math Circle.  Niranjan Balachandar (#16) finished first in the chapter competition and is a regular MMC attendee.

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Purple Comet! 2010

Best of luck to all of the teams competing in the 2010 Purple Comet! Math Meet.  For those of you not familiar with this excellent contest here is some information from their web site:

The Purple Comet! Math Meet is an international mathematics competition for middle and high school students. The contest is entirely administered over the Internet from the contest web site at http://purplecomet.org. Teams of from one to six students compete by submitting solutions to a list of mathematics problems. There is a seven-day window (April 12 through April 18) during which teams may compete choosing a start time most convenient for them. The problems range in difficulty from fairly easy to extremely challenging. In 2009 over 7,000 students competed on over 1700 teams from 25 countries.

There are two levels of competition:

• the middle school contest consists of 20 problems to be completed in 60 minutes;
• the high school contest consists of 30 problems to be completed in 90 minutes.

There are four categories of teams:

• teams whose members all attend the same large school;
• teams whose members all attend the same small school;
• teams whose members attend more than one school or are home schooled;
• teams with no restrictions that do not compete for awards.

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Richard Rusczyk – Problem Solving: A 21st Century Education

Almost two years ago many of us were fortunate enough to hear Richard Rusczyk, the founder of The Art of Problem Solving speak here at our Math Circle.  Now for those who may have missed that memorable talk or for those who would like to share it with others, there is a video of  a very similar talk given by Richard at the prestigious Math Prize for Girls.

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April 10th – 100 Ideas in 10 Geometry Problems

This weekend the director of Metroplex Math Circle, Dr. Titu Andreescu, will give the lecture.  For those of you who are not fortunate to have heard Dr. Andreescu speak, here is some information about him:

Dr. Titu Andreescu, University of Texas at Dallas

Titu Andreescu received his Ph.D. from the West University of Timisoara, Romania. The topic of his dissertation was “Research on Diophantine Analysis and Applications.” Professor Andreescu currently teaches at The University of Texas at Dallas. He is past chairman of the USA Mathematical Olympiad, served as director of the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (1998–2003), coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad Team (IMO) for 10 years (1993–2002), director of the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (1995–2002), and leader of the USA IMO Team (1995–2002). In 2002 Titu was elected member of the IMO Advisory Board, the governing body of the world’s most prestigious mathematics competition. Titu co-founded in 2006 and continues as director of the AwesomeMath Summer Program (AMSP). He received the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching from the MAA in 1994 and a “Certificate of Appreciation” from the president of the MAA in 1995 for his outstanding service as coach of the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program in preparing the US team for its perfect performance in Hong Kong at the 1994 IMO. Titu’s contributions to numerous textbooks and problem books are recognized worldwide. Related articles on this site.

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