The Executive Board of FAMAT held its summer meeting June 30 and July 1, 2000, at Grenelefe.The board rescinded its earlier decision to create a sixth region. At the state convention sponsors showed a lack of support for the idea, and some sponsors in the counties that would have comprised the new region had written letters to the board members opposing the idea.
Instead, region directors will meet this year to determine whether some realignment of districts would provide a more equitable distribution of schools.
Treasurer Tony De Varona reported to the board that some schools in smaller regions have failed to break even in hosting regional competitions. The board agreed to assist those schools up to a cap of waiving entirely the one-dollar-per-student assessment that is normally paid to FAMAT after each competition. To qualify for the assistance, the sponsor would be required to provide a financial statement. In such cases, De Varona will confer with FAMAT President Susan Hiller for a final decision.
To address the concern that some students have been competing in the wrong divisions, the board decided to publish in the first issue of Mu's News the detailed rules which describe which students are eligible to compete in which divisions. The rules will be added to this web page shortly.
The Board decided to replace the Sequences and Series topic test at the state convention with an Advanced Calculus test. Several students and sponsors had suggested that Advanced Calculus be offered.
The fall Interschool test will be opened on November 8 and must be postmarked by November 14. Solutions will be mailed to schools on November 14. Disputes must be postmarked by November 22.
The last item on the fall Interschool test will be a request for a design of the cover for the 2001 state convention. An advanced calculator will be awarded to the school that submits the winning design.
The next-to-last item on the fall Interschool test will be a request for suggestions for a topic for the poster contest at the state convention.
The Helen Dostal and Barbara Nunn mail-in tests will be administered during a 60-minute period on December 6. The Barbara Nunn test is for students in Algebra I or Geometry and the Helen Dostal test is for students in Algebra II, Precalculus, or Calculus. However, a student enrolled in Geometry who has already taken Algebra II will take the Dostal test and a student now taking Statistics, which is considered a higher-level course, would also take the Dostal test.
The board is instructing schools hosting competitions this year to schedule the Calculus Individual and Algebra I Individual tests (and a third test if they wish) in the first round. The reason is to facilitate statewide coordination on disputes. The calculus test often has the largest number of disputes filed.
Responding to a letter from FAMAT, the national MAO organization informed FAMAT that a school has tentatively been chosen to host a 2001 national convention, but it invited FAMAT to apply to sponsor the national convention in 2002. The board decided, however, not to do so.
The deadline for registration for the 2001 state convention will be March 31. Sponsors can turn in their registrations to Kim Woolfenden at the Invitational that will take place on that date if they wish.
Board members discussed again the issue of whether to eliminate Algebra I from the sweepstakes calculation, but took no action. Sam Koski, the author of the scoring program, explained that the program currently drops the lowest division score before calculating sweepstakes scores.
A board member plans to investigate possible alternate sites for future state conventions. It is believed that the convention may soon outgrow the facilities Grenelefe can offer, although agreements have been made for Grenelefe to host the convention for several more years.
The board hopes to allow sponsors to register students for competitions this year by using an Internet web page. FAMAT has purchased the Internet domain name famat.org for this purpose.
Although there was no official ranking of competitors in Mu Alpha Theta mathematics competitions this year, Darrin Gershman was certainly among the best in the Calculus division.Darrin had the highest score, or was tied for the highest score, in two of the three statewide regional competitions and two of the three invitationals.
Darrin is a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where he took two math classes this year - Calculus BC and AP Statistics.
He's been a straight-A student all through high school, although his official class rank is #3. He is a National Merit Finalist and was one of the six finalists for the title of Sunshine State Scholar.
Darrin has other interests besides academics. On the Saturdays when no math competitions take place, he's likely to be taking banjo lessons. He and his fellow students have played at a nursing home at Christmas time the last two years.
Darrin says he also follows NASCAR and all kinds of auto racing, enjoys country music, especially the music from the 1960s and earlier, and watches TV.
His favorite singers are Grandpa Jones and Roger Miller.
His favorite TV shows: The Simpsons and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Asked to name a favorite teacher, Darrin responded, "All of the math teachers at Douglas." He then named specifically Mrs. Negin, Mrs. Singleton, and Mr. Bantz.
Darrin practiced for math competitions about once per week with his team this year. He does miss a question on a calculus test now and then. Asked how that happens, he says, "At different times it's different things. On the Integration test last week it was a lot of things I had never seen before. Hard questions. But on other tests it's careless mistakes and stuff like that."
According to Darrin, the reason that Stoneman Douglas excels at Mu Alpha Theta math competitions is because the teachers and students are very devoted.
"The students and the teachers work together and work hard," he said.
As for Stoneman Douglas' prospects in math competitions next year, Darrin says, "I don't think there'll be a shortage of math people, with this year's Theta and Alpha teams, which will be Alpha and Calculus next year. They're looking good."
Darrin says he enjoyed his recent visit to Tallahassee as one of the six regional winners in the Sunshine State Scholars program.
He described it as an "action-packed few days."
"One of the days was just the testing and the presentations we had to give, and one of the days we got to tour the Capitol and shake hands with the Governor and met the Commissioner of Education and met all these important government people in Tallahassee. So it was a lot of fun."
Darrin is the son of Warren and Janet Gershman. His mother is a special education teacher at Stoneman Douglas. His father is an accountant.
Darrin is not sure what career he will pursue but says his college major will probably have something to do with math. He will attend Rice University, where is brother Jason is also a student, majoring in math.
Susan Hiller was elected President of the Florida Association of Mu Alpha Theta for the coming school year at the 2000 state convention.Mrs. Hiller is the sponsor at Vero Beach High School. She has been the Region 3 director for FAMAT as well as a member of the Board of Governors of national Mu Alpha Theta.
The other officers and regional directors remain the same as they were last year, although a vacancy for region 3 director now exists. The list of board members is here.
Scott Hopkins chose not to seek re-election as President. Mr. Hopkins has numerous administrative duties for the state soccer referee committee and is advancing from State Assessor to National Assessor. Because of these increasing duties he said that he cannot devote the required time to FAMAT next year, and is in fact resigning as a co-sponsor at Gaither. Mr. Hopkins has been a sponsor at Gaither for 16 years, and earlier was a MAO sponsor at Hillsborough for three years.
Sponsors meeting at the 2000 state convention voted unanimously to approve an increase in the state membership fee from $2 to $3 for each student, and to increase the minimum fee per school from $20 to $30.Sponsors also voted unanimously to approve a proposal to increase the competition fee for non-member schools to $30. Schools that have not been members of FAMAT within the last five years and middle schools continue to be exempt from this fee.
The Executive Board proposed that if a school shows up unannounced to a regional or an invitational competition, the fee for each student will be $10, although the $7 late fee would still apply to schools that have registered and are bringing additional students or if the hosting school was contacted in advance.
This proposal was also passed unanimously by sponsors, with two changes: the $7 late fee, rather than the $10 fee, will apply if the hosting school was contacted by noon local time the Wednesday before the competition, and the hosting school must send a verification notice to all schools who have registered.
Sponsors also approved a change in the calculator rules to allow graphing calculators on the statistics topic test, which will again be offered at the three Invitationals in 2001.
Sponsors however voted down a proposed change in the scoring rules at FAMAT competitions next year under which the team scores would have been calculated by automatically using the scores of the top four students from each school in each division.
Sponsors approved a proposal to exclude the Interschool scores in the computation of the sweepstakes scores at future state conventions.
The issue of creating a sixth region was discussed at the sponsors' meeting. A straw vote revealed a lack of support for the proposal. The issue was not discussed at the board meeting the following day.
The Executive Board agreed to use the AP Statistics guidelines when writing the statistics tests. The board also decided to inform test writers that they may not use identical problems from commercially produced test banks. The board also decided that the regional director should assign a school number for the middle schools that participate in competitions but do not feed into a participating high school.
The Executive Board decided to sanction an open competition in the summer of 2001 if there is not a national convention. Currently the national Mu Alpha Theta organization does not have a convention planned for the summer of 2001. A letter will be drafted and sent to the national organization informing them of FAMAT's interest in sanctioning this competition.
The summer FAMAT Board meeting is scheduled for June 30 and July 1.
The FAMAT board wants input from member schools at the state convention on its decision to create a sixth region in southwest Florida.Board members decided to reconsider the issue after receiving letters objecting to the sixth region from the sponsors at Fort Myers and Naples High Schools.
The sponsors at both schools predicted that there would not be enough participation in the new region for a hosting school to be able to afford to host a competition.
The board had earlier voted to create the sixth region in order to increase participation by reducing traveling distances and giving more students a chance to place. Members believed the population growth in southwest Florida justified a new region.
At the meeting, which was held on March 18, 2000, at the Palm Harbor University invitational, one board member pointed out that the new sixth region would in fact be larger than some existing regions and its creation would result in a more equitable distribution of schools among the regions. However, another member said that if the schools most affected by the change were opposed to it, their opinions should be respected.
The board decided to ask for input from member schools at the Friday night sponsors' meeting at the state convention and make a final decision Saturday morning. FAMAT President Scott Hopkins asked that sponsors who will not be attending the state convention offer their opinions by sending a message to the FAMAT mailing list. Sponsors can join the mailing list by visiting http://www.topica.com/lists/famat/. Archived messages can also be read at this site.
The FAMAT board decided at its meeting at the Palm Harbor invitational to retain indefinitely the current rules on calculators.The rules were adopted in February 1999 for a one-year experiment during the 2000 competitions.
Board members said they had heard no objections to the current rules and that the rules seemed to be working well.
The FAMAT calculator rules are as follows:
The same rules apply to all five divisions.
- Students may use any scientific non-programmable calculator on individual tests. This rule also applies to individual and topic tests at the state convention.
- Students may use any calculator that does not have a QWERTY keyboard in team competitions. (Thus, for example, the TI-89 is allowed.) This rule also applies to bowls and team competitions at the state convention.
- At the state convention, no calculators are allowed in relay and history of math.
Schools hosting invitationals are allowed under FAMAT rules to adopt their own policies on calculators.
This article appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat on Feb. 3, 2000. It was written by Sue Doker, the sponsor at Lincoln High School.
The date is Saturday, January 15, 2000. The time is 5:30 a.m. The temperature is 31 degrees. All across Tallahassee, teenagers are climbing aboard buses and getting settled for the trip to Choctawhatchee High School for the first Mu Alpha Theta Regional math competition of the year . Over 200 students from Chiles High, Cobb, Deerlake, Fairview, Florida High, Leon, Lincoln, and Rickards are eager to do what they do best--solve some challenging and thought provoking math problems. In Mu Alpha Theta, the playing field is a 30 problem test, the equipment is a sharp pencil and a sharp mind, the coaches are math teachers, and the winners...well, all these kids are winners.
For 15 years, the Florida Association of Mu Alpha Theta (MAO) has provided math competitions for the best and brightest students from all over the state of Florida. The students know that the competition is tough, so they have been working hard, studying and practicing together after school since September. The Math team is much like any other competitive school team. While the football team is outside running offensive plays, the math team is inside tackling sample tests and timing math exercises with a stop watch.
All the teams know who their rivals are. And Lincoln is everyone's rival. It is widely known that Lincoln has dominated all the regional competitions for the past 6 years, having won the coveted First Place Sweepstakes award at 18 consecutive regional competitions. If there is a team to beat, then that team is Lincoln. But within this intense rivalry, there is a great mutual respect. Over the years Lincoln has provided many schools the materials and encouragement needed to become serious about MAO competitions.
As the bus ride begins, students plump up their pillows and get comfortable enough to sleep until sunrise. When the sun comes up students yawn, stretch, and get out their math books, notebooks and calculators. The conversations involve chatter about logarithms, vectors, derivatives, polar coordinates, linear functions, polygons, polynomials, and extraneous roots. There is a constant exchange of questions and answers, mixed with a card game of hearts, laughter, gossip, and jokes. They may be young mathematicians, but they are also typical teenagers.
After arriving at Choctaw High School, the students mingle and then get situated for the day's contests. This means a rigorous one-hour test and 12 intense 4 minute group questions.
When the contests were completed, word got around quickly that the Algebra II test was very hard; most of the scores are low. The lobby outside of the testing hall buzzed with the noise of everyone talking at once. There were disputes on the Pre Calculus and Algebra I tests. Students realized that a few of the posted answers are incorrect, and they must turn in a written explanation to have the answer changed. Students compared their results, tallied their team totals, and speculated on the possibilities of who might have won.
After the break for lunch, everyone returned to the school gymnasium for the announcement and presentation of awards. Excitement and suspense filled the air. Students asked themselves, "did I place?", "will my team be in the top 5?", "will Lincoln once again claim the First place Sweepstakes award?"
One by one, names of top individuals and teams are called out. It has been a victorious day for the students from Leon county, who received a total of 35 individual and team trophies.
The final award category is for Sweepstakes; everyone was silent as the top 3 schools were announced. In third place: Mosley High School; in second place: Rickards High School, and in first place: Niceville High School. The jubilant winners are congratulated by all. With the end of the '90's has come the end of Lincoln's 6 year winning streak. There is a new heightened level of hopeful excitement and competitive enthusiasm.
After a few final moments spent posing for photographs with the prized trophies, students board the buses and head for home. The 3 hour trip passes by quickly. Students review their tests. Every mistake is examined, analyzed, and reworked. It's not too soon to start preparing for next month's competition.
In response to several questions, here is an explanation of t-scores as used by FAMAT.According to Sam Koski, who is in charge of the scoring program, sweepstakes were calculated originally by using the sum of all scores. He said that it was noticed that the scores from an easier test tended to dominate the entire sweepstakes score. A school with a strong Algebra II team, for example, would win on a particular day if the Algebra II test was very easy. The FAMAT board decided to use t-scores, which keep the division scores more comparable so that this doesn't happen as easily any more.
A t-score is calculated using the formula t = 10z + 50.
In the above formula, z is the standard score (or z-score) and represents the number of standard deviations above or below the mean a particular score is located. The z-score is equal to (x - mu)/sigma, where x is the actual team score, mu is the mean score, and sigma is the standard deviation of all the team scores.
t-scores have a mean of 50, whereas z-scores have a mean of 0 and tend to lie between -2 and 2.
More information on t-scores is available at http://ericae.net/ericdb/ED398239.htm.
At its June 1999 meeting at Grenelefe, the FAMAT Executive Board decided to add a sixth region, experiment with a statistics division, improve the system of registering students for competitions, and make other changes.Sixth region. The board decided that the population increase in the southwestern part of the state justified creation of a sixth region beginning in the 2000-2001 school year.
The new region will consist of Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Desoto, Highlands, Glades, and Hendry Counties.
The board also decided to move Palm Beach County from Region 5 to Region 3, to make the numbers of students in those two regions more nearly equal. Thus region 5 will consist only of Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties.
Region 1 will consist of Jefferson County and all counties to the west of Jefferson County. Region 2 will consist of Levy, Marion, and Volusia counties and all counties to the north of those counties which are not in Region 1. Region 3 will stretch from Brevard to Palm Beach counties, and also include Seminole, Orange, and Okeechobee counties. Region 4 will stretch from Citrus to Manatee counties and also include Lake, Sumter, Polk, and Hardee counties.
Statistics. The board decided to experiment with a statistics division by offering a 30-question multiple choice test in Statistics (including Probability) at the three Invitationals starting in either January 2000 or January 2001. [The decision about which year will be made shortly.]
There will not be a team competition in Statistics in the first year, and results will not count towards sweepstakes. But 15 individual trophies will be awarded at each of the three Invitationals, with FAMAT paying for the trophies.
Improved registration. FAMAT scoring chairman Sam Koski plans to create a statewide database of competing students which can be downloaded from the Internet at each competition.
The purpose of the database is to largely eliminate the time-consuming process of scanning of student registration forms at every competition. FAMAT expects to establish an Internet website so that sponsors can add their students to the database and thus register them on-line.
The on-line registration could begin with the mail-in math contest FAMAT is offering to all member schools to be administered on December 8, 1999. One copy of the test -- which will cover skills up to Algebra II -- will be mailed to each school, which can make as many copies as desired. Answer sheets will be mailed to Koski.
The 30-question multiple-choice test, which is not yet named, is designed to increase interest among schools and students that do not attend competitions.
More information on the alternative registration process will be provided when it becomes available.
Proposed membership fee increase to $3. The board proposed to institute the first-ever increase in the FAMAT membership fee, raising the fee from $2 to $3.
The minimum fee for each school would increase from $20 to $30.
The main reason for the increase is to allow FAMAT to replace the scanners and computers used for scoring in some of the regions.
According to the FAMAT Constitution, the proposed increase must be approved by a majority of schools attending at the next state convention.
New scoring program. Scoring chairman Sam Koski plans to rewrite the computer program which is used to score competitions.
The revised program will allow greater flexibility and ease of operation, and will be compatible with modern scanners.
When the new program is available -- in the 2000-2001 school year -- one significant change in scoring will be made. Division awards will be determined by combining team scores of each school with the four highest individual scores in each division from each school. The program will automatically select the highest individual scores, and it will no longer be necessary to indicate at registration time which students are on the teams. This also eliminate the risk that a team can be disqualified when more than four students are inadvertently selected for team.
The awards program will include the usual individual awards, team awards (for which the four students who actually made up the team will be presented awards), and division awards (one trophy for each school, which would be accepted on stage by only the team captains).
Again, these changes do not take effect until the 2000-2001 school year, when the new scoring program is available.
Interschool test. The Interschool mail-in test will be opened on Nov. 10 and mailed back by Nov. 17.
Algebra I. The board discussed at length the possibility of removing Algebra I from the determination of sweepstakes awards.
Proponents of the change argued that Algebra I competitors nowadays are mostly middle school students, and schools that do not arrange to bring students from their feeder middle schools should not be penalized.
The board decided, however, to table the issue. There was concern by some members that middle schools would interpret the change to mean they were no longer important, whereas all the board members expressed a desire to increase participation by middle schools.
History of math. The history of math contest at the 2000 state convention will cover the period from A. D. 1800 to the present.
At its June 1999 meeting, the FAMAT board clarified some technical issues regarding scoring of test items that might be open to debate.These guidelines were presented:
- If a student believes a test item is seriously defective, he or she should select "none of the above" and file a dispute explaining why.
- If a student notices there are two or more equivalent correct answers (such as sin 30° and 1/2), the student should select any of the correct answers, and not select "none of the above." This applies even if one of the correct answers is in more simplified form than another. This is a situation which should not occur, but it has happened. A dispute should be filed.
- If none of the answer choices includes all solutions, the student should choose "none of the above." For example, for "Solve x2 = 49," a choice providing only one solution should not be chosen. However, if the item is worded "A solution... is," a choice providing only one solution would be correct.
- The phrase "two numbers" is to be interpreted as allowing the two numbers to be equal. The phrase "two distinct numbers" does not allow this possibility.
- If a student files a dispute claiming what the dispute center believes is a unique or highly unusual interpretation of the problem, the dispute center may give that student credit for his or her answer, but only allow the intended answer for all other students.
- The dispute center should throw out a seriously defective question and give all students 4 points, regardless of how or whether they answered the item.
- Students should select "none of the above" only if they believe either there is no correct answer or the question is seriously flawed.
Interviews with Mu Alpha Theta sponsors at Tampa Bay Tech, Gaither, Leto, and H. B. Plant High Schools reveal that the programs at their schools are quite similar.Kim Woolfenden, the sponsor at Tampa Bay Tech, estimated that about 20 to 25 students from her school attend competitions. About 15 attend the state convention at Grenelefe.
Students from all over Hillsborough County attend Tampa Bay Tech, which is a magnet school with about 1500 students. Over 50 buses transport students to the school.
Woolfenden said several teachers help in practice sessions. She helps the Algebra II students.
Mary Jane Ferguson, who has been the head sponsor at H. B. Plant for twelve years, said about 20 to 25 students are involved at her school.
She said two sponsors work with students at practice sessions one day per week.
Ferguson assists about ten Geometry and Algebra II students, and another teacher works with about ten Precalculus and Calculus students.
"We have a small club compared to a lot of the schools in Hillsborough county, so we have to work hard," she added.
Judy Blanco, who has been at Leto High School for 19 years, said the Mu Alpha Theta chapter there has about 64 students, but about 20 go to competitions.
She said students normally practice on Mondays and Wednesdays after school for about an hour. Five teachers are involved in the program.
Susan Hammer, who is in her fourteenth year at Gaither, said about 30 students at her school actually participate by coming to practices and attending at least one competition, but there are about 75 to 80 in the math honor society.
She said practices are held twice a week after school and involve four teachers. Students go over old tests at the practice sessions.
Gaither is on double sessions, and Hammer explained that this presents difficulties for ninth graders.
They are too young to drive and they get out of school at 5:30 p.m., which is too late for practice sessions.
"They can't practice until the bus gets there, which doesn't leave much time. They have about 30 minutes between when the bus arrives and when class starts. It's really hard for us to work with our ninth graders. It's very difficult."
Asked to explain why Gaither excels at competitions, Hammer said that when the school first opened it did not do very well at competitions. She has been at Gaither since the school opened.
"It becomes a tradition. When you finally get a group that does well then the ones that follow try harder because they want to continue the tradition. And we just happened to have a really good group of kids. Around 1989-90 we got a bunch of good math students that were real interested and wanted to do well and they kind of started the tradition of doing well and it just spreads."
Hammer is a recipient of the Mathematical Association of America's Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished High School Mathematics Teaching. The award is made annually to teachers whose teams achieve the top scores on the American High School Mathematics Examination.
The four teachers mentioned two methods of fundraising -- candy sales and hosting Mu Alpha Theta competitions.
Kim Woolfenden at Tampa Bay Tech said each club there is allowed one fundraiser per year, and one week to do it.
Their fundraiser is a candy sale. The money raised by each student goes into his or her individual student account.
At H. B. Plant, Mary Ferguson said their club sometimes does a candy sale, from which they hope to clear $1000.
They also host competitions two years in a row, and then take one year off.
She said H. B. Plant has hosted four competitions, and typically makes about $1000 profit from each.
Some schools make a higher profit by selling advertising for the competition, she explained.
Leto High School's math club also does a candy sale, according to Judy Blanco, who said they raise about $1500 each year.
She said that at one time they sponsored the calendar pageant at the school but that "it kind of fell by the wayside for lack of student interest."
She added that a calendar pageant is successful at some other schools, notably Plant City High School.
Blanco said that Leto has hosted several regional competitions and co-sponsored some invitationals with Gaither.
"The way our physical plant is laid out it's more conducive to regionals."
She added that in 1984 Leto hosted the Mu Alpha Theta state convention in the days when the convention was held at high schools rather than at Grenelefe.
That state convention featured the introduction of the relay, and was also the first time computerized scoring was used.
At Gaither, Susan Hammer said the club also sells candy.
"When we host a competition we don't order as much candy but this year we'll probably order a lot of candy and hopefully sell a lot of it and hopefully make over $1000."
Hillsborough County provides charter buses for schools to attend the distant competitions.
Judy Blanco said, "The county allocates a certain amount of money for bus transportation and then the sponsors at a meeting at the beginning of the year prioritize the contests that they can afford to attend within that budget."
For that reason, several schools could not go to Miami because they preferred to go to the closer competition at Fort Myers.
The county will provide a bus to the state convention at Grenelefe.
All four schools came to the River Ridge competition in New Port Richey by private cars, with teachers, parents, and some students driving.
Susan Hammer explained that students are allowed to drive to local competitions, but cannot transport other students.
This is the first in a series of articles describing the Mu Alpha Theta programs at various high schools around the state of Florida.The keys to success at FAMAT competitions seem to be dedicated students and lots of after-school practice.
That's the theme that emerges from recent telephone interviews with chapter sponsors at three Florida high schools that consistently excel in competitions.
At Stoneman Douglas High School, Ann Singleton says their success "is mostly because of our students. We have very interested and dedicated students. They love math and they practice and they work tests on their own."
"There's no way to be successful unless they work at it. If the kids don't work, then there's no hope."
Singleton and Gregg Blantz are Mu Alpha Theta co-sponsors at Stoneman Douglas, which is located in Parkland, near Fort Lauderdale. The school opened for the 1990-91 school year.
Stoneman Douglas won first place at the 1997 state FAMAT convention. It was its fourth consecutive first-place finish.
The school also placed second in the 1997 national Mu Alpha Theta convention in Seattle, finishing behind Vestavia Hills High School of Birmingham, Alabama.
Singleton says, "The practices are organized after school, but even outside practices, the really good ones take old competition tests and work them on their own, and we check them and they ask questions about them, and so forth. But they just constantly are working practice tests, and that's where they get so solid, from working the tests, and that's the only way to expose themselves to all the different types of questions that are asked in competitions, because it's such a variety."
At J. P. Taravella High School, sponsor Jim Meier says, "We've been very successful the last several years and we attribute it to a lot of dedication on the kids' part. The kids are really enthusiastic about this and we stress it. We don't like to put a lot of pressure on them but we stress the importance of practice and how important it is to be there and they've taken us up on it."
Meier has been the sponsor of Mu Alpha Theta at the school for about seven years.
J. P. Taravella High School is located in Coral Springs. The school has a Mu Alpha Theta math honor society and a separate math club. Math club members do not have to belong to the honor society. Penny Swant is sponsor of the math club.
Meier explains that the math club in his school "is really like the forum for our practice sessions for our competitions. We both promote competitions and foster competitions."
Meier said practice began this year in late September.
"We usually take Wednesdays and Thursdays of every week. We do old tests and students help each other. Maybe the Pre-calculus kids will help the Algebra II's, the Algebra II's will help the Geometry's, and we use the kids involved, so it's not just all teachers doing the coaching and instructing. It's the kids involved too."
Meier said that the Mu Alpha Theta chapter has 135 students this year, and the math club has 115. About 75 to 100 students attend at least one competition each year, and typically about 45 go to a competition.
Meier said that about 40 attend the Geometry sessions and about 20 attend the Pre-calculus sessions, both of which are on Wednesdays. On Thursdays, about 20 students attend the Algebra II sessions and about 15 attend the Calculus sessions.
Stoneman Douglas has over 3000 students; J. P. Taravella has about 2700.
Unlike those two schools, Community School of Naples has only 124 students in grades 9-12.
Community School opened with only lower grades in 1982. It is a private school with about 450 students in grades pre-K through 12. Its most-recent graduating class, which was only its second one, had just 14 students.
Edgar Berger, the sponsor at Community School, says that, nevertheless, there are about 60 students who are "very active," including some eighth graders.
He explains that the school has eight academic periods and a ninth period is reserved for activities such as drama practice, Spanish club, or Mu Alpha Theta. Ninth period runs from 3 to 3:35 p.m.
Berger works with the Algebra I students on Mondays, the Geometry students on Tuesdays, and the Algebra II students on Wednesdays. There are about 15 students in each group.
Other faculty members meet with about 10 Pre-calculus students and about 12 Calculus students.
Berger says that currently students are working on skill development, but that beginning in November "we'll start doing more and more with practice tests."
Berger says, "We meet, and we eat, and we do math. The kids bring in munchies, sometimes we order pizza, sometimes we'll just bring in pretzels and chips and Doritos."
Berger explained, "If you don't have food at the end of the day you can't think mathematically."
Berger also assigns past tests as weekend homework for entire classes.
At Stoneman Douglas, Singleton says the school's large enrollment isn't really that important.
She says, "It only takes a few students, and every school has good math students. It really only takes takes four good dedicated students to come up with a good, for instance, Algebra II team. But the interest is the main thing."
Asked about fundraisers, Ann Singleton said, "We do have candy sales and we host a regional and so we do a few things, but not as much as some other chapters do."
She said the chapter tries to pay for the bus to go to Grenelefe, so that the students only have to pay for the registration and rooms.
At J. P. Taravella, both clubs do a candy sale and the math club also did a donut sale last year. Meier explained that they also earn some funds from the proceeds of the math competition they host. The competition helps defray the cost of the national and state conventions.
At the much smaller Community School of Naples, Edgar Berger says they have tried fundraisers but that it is not cost-effective.
He said that the chapter was one of the campus organizations that raised funds by bringing lunch to the school, which has no cafeteria. But the proceeds of the year-long activity were only $400.
He said that the school has purchased a school bus, which will help in the costs of attending competitions.
Singleton said that Stoneman Douglas students enjoyed attending the national convention at Seattle.
"Seattle of course is wonderful and they had a lot of interesting activities, side trips and so forth that everyone enjoyed, and the kids all had a really good time."
Community School of Naples, on the other hand, has not yet sent any students to a national convention.
Berger explained with such a small enrollment and conflicts caused by other summer activities, there was not a sufficient number of students who could go.
But Community School has been to the state convention for the last four years. Two years ago, they broke into the top ten, and last year finished in eleventh place. Berger said that because of the small number of students, "our biggest problem is that there are other statewide activities that go on during the same weekend."
Berger described Community School as "a great place" and said the students are "dynamic."
Community School also has an unwritten policy: To show appreciation for other students' successes, they clap for other schools when trophies are awarded at competitions.
Berger brought up the name of one outstanding past FAMAT competitor, Dharmesh Mehta, who graduated from Stoneman Douglas High School in 1996.
"Our kids just were in awe of this kid. And when he would win, they would go nuts. And I like that. I liked the fact that Dharmesh was recognized for doing something exceptional."