Math Competition

Picture an auditorium filled with tables. At each table is three chairs, a paddle with a number and three bottles of water. Students are entering with nervous energy, and the murmuring reaches a high pitch as it gets closer to the time to start. No, it’s not an auction, it’s a math competition. Finally a teacher takes the microphone and directs students to their seats so that we can get started. The math competition is an annual competition held by the math department at school. Consisting of both team and individual sections it takes a full Friday and the help of all of us to run. With the first team competition set to begin 8-LP-9 the first two periods (10-11 third and fourth) we need to get started. The only problem…no one wants to take responsibility for the mike and explaining the rules. Since we’re an English language department (despite 14 Turkish teachers to 4 foreigners) the whole day is to be run in English – and no one who knows what is going on wants to take responsibility for speaking to everyone. Finally I give in and take the microphone, realizing we just need to get this show on the road (I’ve found that the foreigners seem to be more likely to step up and get involved just to get things moving along) but not realizing that it would mean that I would have a microphone in my hand the next four periods of the day. After explaining the rules and working out some of the kinks with two practice rounds we finally start the first team competition: a series of 15 questions with three minutes to answer each question. Each team gets two tries to answer the question correctly. The quickest correct answer receives 3 points, the second 2 and every other correct answer 1 point. With so many students involved and a decent sized audience (yes teachers brought their classes to watch a math competition) there is definitely a potential for chaos here. Surprisingly everything runs smoothly and we meet no real problems. All in all, it was a successful run and a great opportunity to see students excited about doing math.