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MATC SHOWS
LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THAT MATH PAYS
WITH“WHO WANTS TO BE A MATHEMATICIAN” COMPETITION
Madison Area Technical
College (MATC) will celebrate Mathematics Awareness Month during April
by hosting Wisconsin’s first “Who Wants to be a Mathematician”
competition among 10 finalists from Wisconsin high schools. By participating
in the competition, these high school students will have the chance to
convert their math knowledge into hard cash. The top prize in the game,
modeled after the popular television game show “Who Wants to be a
Millionaire,” is $2000 donated by the American Mathematical Society
(AMS) and MATC. The public is invited to attend this free event.
The event will
take place on April 16 at 11 am in the Mitby Theater at
MATC Truax, 3550 Anderson Street as part of several lectures and
activities organized by MATC Math Instructor J. “Sri” Sriskandarajah
to enhance awareness among youth for the importance and joy of mathematics.
“More than
50 Wisconsin high schools were invited to participate in the qualifying
test for this event, and we have narrowed the contestants down to the
top 10 finalists,” stated Sriskandarajah.
The finalists
and the high schools they attend are:
Ryan Petty, Baraboo;
Drew Braucht, Edgewood
Amir Talebi, Fort Atkinson
Keven Brown, Ithaca
Erik Saunders, Rufus King
Brent Sullivan, LaFollette
Andrew Ishihara, Marquette University High School
Tracy Backes, McFarland
Po-Ling Loh, James Madison Memorial;
Alec Li, Madison West.
The game, developed
by the AMS, has been used in local competitions across the nation. It
proceeds like the game show with contestants moving up the prize ladder
by using lifelines, if needed, to answer questions about mathematics.
The three lifelines are: Ask Your Teacher, 50-50, and Ask The Audience.
The game will follow a talk starting at 10 am by Professor Ken Ono, UW-Madison
Department of Mathematics, on “Number Theory: Partitions and the
Legacy of Dyson and Ramanujan.” At 1 pm, Texas Instruments will present
a graphing calculator workshop.
Since, “math
and music go hand in hand,” according to Sriskandarajah, the noon
lunch will feature music performed by the MATC Jazz Ensemble, a group
of MATC and Madison community musicians who have represented the college
for nearly 30 years. The group has performed across the U.S. with such
artists as Count Basie, Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman and
Stan Keaton.
Information about
past game competitions is available on the web at http://www.ams.org/ams/wwtbam.html.
In addition to the AMS, sponsors of “Who Wants to be a Mathematician”
include Maplesoft, Texas Instruments, John Wiley & Sons, and the Mathematical
Association of America. Other contributors include the MATC Foundation,
Lands' End Inc., Pleasant Co., Placon Corp., Herbert H. Kohl Charities,
First Supply Group Inc., Mead and Hunt Inc., Capitol Bank, State Farm
Insurance, MacKichan Software Inc., Wolfram Research Inc., Addison-Wesley,
the National Science Foundation, the MATC Bookstores and MATC Culinary
Arts Department.
More information
is available on the web about Mathematics Awareness Month activities at
http://mathforum.org/mam/activities and about the MATC Math Club at http://matcmadison.edu/studentlife/clubs/mathclub/.
MATC is one of
the largest of the Wisconsin Technical College System’s 16 colleges
and serves about 50,000 individuals each year. It provides a comprehensive
curriculum of technical, liberal arts and science, adult basic education
and life enrichment studies and activities, as well as customized employee
training. MATC provides training in more than 100 career programs. It
awards associate degrees, vocational diplomas and certificates, and offers
non-degree courses. The college offers instruction through five campuses
and various other locations throughout the district.
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Last
Modified:
November 7, 2006
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