Yale secondary tops at UCFV math contest

Yale Secondary came up the big winner at the fourth annual high school math contest hosted by UCFV. Yale students placed four students in the top 10 this year, adding to their impressive standings in the three previous years in order to win the prize for top school. The prize was a full research-level version of the mathematical software Maple, worth over $500. It was donated by Waterloo Maple, a world-leader in mathematical software. The software is used in mathematical education throughout North America and beyond.

"I am very proud of our math students as they work very hard," says Yale math teacher Mic Finnegan. "In my classroom we have our participation certificates for 1998, 1999, and 2000 hanging on the wall. We look forward to adding our 2001certificate as well!"

Students from eight high schools in Abbotsford and Chilliwack participated in the two divisions. In the Junior category (Grades 8-10), top place went to Mark Homenuke of Rick Hansen Secondary, second to Amanda Franks of Sardis Secondary, and third to Hyun-Woo Kim of Abbotsford Junior Secondary. Derek Mandel of Yale was fourth and Jordan Penner of Sardis was fifth.

The Senior category (Grades 11&12) was won by a Grade 10 student, Dustin Tseng of Yale. Steph Abegg, also of Yale, placed second, and Matthew Pitts of Chilliwack Senior Secondary was a very close third. Aaron Franks of Sardis was fourth, and Heather More of Yale was fifth. Steph and Matthew have participated in the contest every year since it started and have each won several times. Dustin, Aaron, and Heather have also done well in previous contests.

"Dustin and Steph both tell me that they look forward to the contest each year and think it is a great day," adds Finnigan. "They say that the questions make you think which is what they like to do. Steph thought this year's contest was more difficult than previous years. She was determined that this was the year she would beat Dustin but it was not to be! Dustin also recently completed the Fermat exam and got the top score in all of Canada. Not bad for a Grade 10 student. He will be flown to Ontario for further contests."

"These kids are amazing," says Susan Milner, who coordinates the math contest. "The problems they solve are very difficult. But the most important thing about the contest is that all of the students had a chance to have fun with mathematics, and stretch their minds a little with interesting questions. The ability to analyse and solve new and difficult problems is a skill that will serve these students well, no matter what they end up doing with their lives."

First Heritage and Delta Credit Union made a generous donation towards the prizes, the third year they have done so. "We are very fortunate to have them as a major sponsor," says Milner.

Many students carried off book prizes, donated by the book publishing companies Pearson Education Canada and Nelson Thomson Learning, as well as by the math & stats faculty at UCFV.

Donors of other prizes included the UCFV bookstore and Towne Centre Cinemas, UCFV's Faculty & Staff Association, the Dean of Science, and the Vice President Academic.

UCFV belongs to a group of BC colleges and university colleges, each of which contributes to the designing of the annual contest. Competition is purely local: the goal is to involve as many students as possible. Each institution runs the contest for local high school students, so on May 4, students were busy testing themselves all across the province.

There are two parts to the math contest. Invitations to join the fun are sent to all local middle and high schools. Students write a preliminary round in their own schools in mid-March. Everyone who is interested may write this version -- one year the entire Grade 9 population of AJ Rundle Middle School wrote it! Then each school is invited to send a team of the four top students in each category to the final round, which is held at a UCFV campus in early May.

The day of the contest includes more than the contest itself. While the students do the hard work, the teachers participate in professional development activities led by members of the UCFV Math & Stats department. This year Dr. Camilo Martinez and Dr. Greg Schlitt shared the honours. "We all really enjoy the chance to talk shop with other math educators," notes Milner. "I hear they had a hard time prying the teachers away for a coffee break."

Then, while the contest papers are being graded, the students and their teachers joined statistician Dr. David Chu for games illustrating some laws of probability. Chu challenged the students with a game showing that you can estimate the value of pi simply by tossing toothpicks on a piece of paper! He also convinced them that if there are only 23 people in a room, there is a greater than 50% chance that two of them were born on the same day of the year. After the calculations, he illustrated by asking the 50-plus people in the room to raise their hands when their birthday came up: there were three pairs.

"The members of my department thoroughly enjoy our contact with local students and teachers," says Milner. "That's the best part of the contest as far as we're concerned, sharing the fun of exploring mathematics."

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