Dmmetler Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I got the e-mail today. It is a nice set of materials for middle school math groups, plus it's free! http://www.mathcounts.org/register-national-math-club 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 We started working on the practice problems tonight. The boy starts an afterschool club/class tomorrow to prepare students for Math Counts. Most students will be 7th and 8th Graders, but he (6th) wants to give it a try. Did really well on the first two warm ups. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 To get the club in a box, you have to have at least four middle schoolers that meet in person for a math club. It's a great resource! Spycar - I encourage any 6th graders that might be competitive as they are older, to get started with Mathcounts in 6th grade. It's great to get the experience and may pay off in the upcoming years. In general, I encourage 6th graders that are capable (and not intimidated by some really good older students) to do it. It's a lot of fun and I've seen a number of 6th graders walk away motivated to learn lots more math so that they can do better the next year. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GThomas Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Is the "box" virtual materials or mailed to you? We have several US expat homeschoolers out where we are and before I go through the registration, I wanted to know what the materials are. Also, I am no math whiz. I assume this is laid out for just about any parent to lead?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 It's actually a physical box that contains the book of practice activities (Which is also available online) and other stuff-last year, that included the dice darts games, plus various other stuff. They have some really, really good corporate sponsors for this, My middle schoolers use the MathCounts stuff, while my younger kids do other stuff. It's fairly easy to use. In fact, since my group is so multi-age, usually my middle schoolers end up mostly using it on their own. There are a lot of additional materials online that you get access to when you register a club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 To get the club in a box, you have to have at least four middle schoolers that meet in person for a math club. It's a great resource! Spycar - I encourage any 6th graders that might be competitive as they are older, to get started with Mathcounts in 6th grade. It's great to get the experience and may pay off in the upcoming years. In general, I encourage 6th graders that are capable (and not intimidated by some really good older students) to do it. It's a lot of fun and I've seen a number of 6th graders walk away motivated to learn lots more math so that they can do better the next year. Hey Julie, I'm hoping it will be a good experience for him. I think he is pretty mature in understanding that this year there will be topics and solutions he hasn't covered yet. I guess the club/class will cover part of it. The idea of extending his AoPS-style math education through the school in a group setting is very attractive to me. My boy is an extrovert type, so the social/group aspect of a club/team I expect will be motivating. Fingers crossed. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Frankly, I'm hoping that we'll actually have a real team before DD ages out. My current 6-8th graders are mostly kids who are "good at math"- but only when it's laid out exactly as they've learned it, and who have parents who are scared of algebra. So I'm focusing on problem solving. My younger ones, many of whom are doing Beast Academy, are a lot more flexible and able to attack problems in different ways. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Just FYI for anyone reading this thread - you have to have a group to get the club in a box, but you can sign up and compete in Mathcounts as an individual. That's how we started with my oldest. I have since gone on to build a team - both of really competitive students as well as good, average math students. I'd say the most important pieces of math are good math logic and how to approach problems in new ways, not accelerated computational skills. My dyslexic, severely dysgraphic, (highly gifted in math) son went on to win in our area and received college scholarships through our state. My dyslexic daughter who is actually behind in grade level of math, but very good at the math logic did respectably well as a 6th grader and is excited about returning next year. I've taken multiple homeschool kids to state over the past several years. My fo cus in math team meetings is to have fun and to try to teach some math that isn't traditionally taught such as counting and probability as well as new ways of approaching old problems. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 I liked the problem in Warm Up #1 where they were asked to find the sum of the interior angles of a regular octagon. I thought I might have to give a prompt, but (not knowing the answer) the kid broke the octagon into 6 triangles (180 each) then multiplied 180 by 6 to get 1080 degrees. That is a cool way to think. Bill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 We started working on the practice problems tonight. The boy starts an afterschool club/class tomorrow to prepare students for Math Counts. Most students will be 7th and 8th Graders, but he (6th) wants to give it a try. Did really well on the first two warm ups. Bill FWIW, my dd did MathCounts in 6th and felt that AoPS Prealgebra was very helpful preparation. So, he has that going for him! As you may have noticed, the warmups get progressively more difficult. If possible, have him go to the Chapter competition in February. Eta, did you not get through chapter 10 yet? There is a tool that would make the octagon problem much easier, though yeah, very cool that he found a way to figure it out! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 FWIW, my dd did MathCounts in 6th and felt that AoPS Prealgebra was very helpful preparation. So, he has that going for him! As you may have noticed, the warmups get progressively more difficult. If possible, have him go to the Chapter competition in February. I have not looked ahead yet (scared? :D). Without the preparation of BA and AoPS PreA this would not be as natural a step. Even something as simple as having the beast kids be part of a math team had its mark as an example of an activity a student could take on. And the problem solving style is helpful beyond measure. I'm curious about the school team. I understand they generally do well. We have two schools-with-in-the-school to draw on, one geared to Math and the other to Science. Both programs accelerate math by two years in Middle School (so Algebra 1 in 7th/Geometry in 8th) which the district hates for being anti-Common Core (CC is anti-acceleration). So the kids are "good at math." I'm curious to see which ones (or how many) have been exposed to AoPS? I'm really not sure if it has penetrated (or not). Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ofus Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Can you clarify ~ the math club doesn't have to be a MathCounts team? You don't actually have to participate in MathCounts? I'm confused about that part. It wouldn't be hard for us to develop a math club, but it would be hard for us to generate a MathCounts team. I don't think my guy would like to participate as an individual. Additionally, there is a local MC team that is not competitive, but they've mentioned to my guy that they'd like him to participate. I don't think they'll even be practicing, they literally just show up & show what they know. If he chose to do that, does that exclude him from being a part of the math club that would request this resource?Is this a resource for clubs that are planning to participate in MathCounts or just a resource for math clubs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 4ofus, I don't know what's in the box, but the MathCounts handbook is available to anyone online for free, with the weekly warmups/practice. 2016: http://www.mathcounts.org/sites/default/files/u1706/2015-2016_MATHCOUNTS_School_Handbook_NO_SOLUTIONS.pdf 2015: http://videochallenge.mathcounts.org/sites/default/files/14-15_MATHCOUNTS_School_Handbook_With_Answers.pdf 2014: http://www.mathcounts.org/sites/default/files/u49/13-14%20MC%20Handbook.pdf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ofus Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 wapiti, thanks. I knew there were online materials available for free, we've looked at those many times. I guess I thought the box was something else. Or why would they send you a box? Why not just direct you to the online materials? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 It's both-they're trying to encourage MathCounts participation, but the Club in a box is for local clubs-which may or may not participate in Math Counts. It adds the print materials plus some physical stuff, too. Last year's box included polyhedral dice, MathCounts pencils, printed posters to use to attract kids to the group, and instructions on what is needed to become a silver or gold club. You could easily do it with just the online stuff if you don't have enough kids, but the box of swag really, really appeals to the kids-they are SO excited that these companies and groups think they're important enough to send them these cool tools to use and that they're part of something nationwide, not just locally and in some cases they get to hear about math club and math counts from their PS friends as well. Basically, I think the idea is that you'll start a club and build it up, with the goal of eventually having a team, but that the club is accessible to kids who might be scared off by the competitive side. That's what I'm seeing, anyway. The same is true with the NME group-I get a lot of kids who sign up for the mythology club, but it took three years of having the group before most of the kids chose to test. I'm hoping that in a couple of years I'll go from a math club with a few kids doing math competitions to an actual team. FWIW, I'm definitely seeing a difference between my middle schoolers, who, except for DD, haven't had AOPS style math (most in my area use either Saxon or Teaching Textbooks) and my elementary kids, many of whom have been using Beast Academy and who have also had the problem solving group for a couple of years. I'm kind of looking forward to them getting to 6th grade. And, I admit, I'm kind of enjoying getting to actually use my Math Education background for more than just DD. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Basically, I think the idea is that you'll start a club and build it up, with the goal of eventually having a team, but that the club is accessible to kids who might be scared off by the competitive side. Thank you! I registered today and I am hoping to start a club this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 The Mathcounts Handbook (linked above) is essentially problem sets. The Club materials are much more geared toward fun math based activities - most of which are not building toward competition. The Club materials are also available online, but as dmmetler said the box has a bunch of cool stuff to get you started. 4ofsu - Your student can only sign up as part of one "team", but I see no reason he can't participate in club activities with a different group. Mathcounts has gotten strict about homeschoolers and teams. Homeschoolers can be a part of a team of a "school" they belong to or a homeschool math club that is drawn by your geographic Mathcounts chapter. Homeschoolers cannot join a public or private school team of a school they do not go to. When registering you also sign a waver that says 1) you homeschool 2) you live in the geographic boundaries of your chapter and 3)if not picked for your team, you aren't allowed to go join a different team (an issue if you have more than 10 competing from your school/club) In the past there have been problems of teams drawing from across a state and trying to create a superteam and calling themselves homeschoolers; there have also been problems that students were not picked as one of ten people from a school to go to chapter and then trying to call themselves homeschoolers just to get to compete. I have found everyone both locally and nationally very open to working with homeschoolers, but they do make you jump through a few more hoops to verify that you really do homeschool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ofus Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Thanks for the replies. I went back to the website linked earlier & looked around some more. Previously I was just looking at the MC information. This time I saw the math club info & now I understand :). Thanks y'all. Now, to find 2 more kids that *want to do math with us. Haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Thanks for this info! DH ran a math club for the kids when DD was younger, and we have talked about doing one again, but just never did it even though we've had folks asking to start again. This gave me the incentive to start it up again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sportsmom Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I *love* the idea of this, but honestly, I am SO out of my element that I can't seem to wrap my head around all the different pieces that I need to know. I'm sure if there were someone locally that was participating and we could join them, I would grasp the ins and outs pretty quickly. Just looking on the website and trying to figure out what applies to me and jumping through hoops is so UNAPPEALING. Honestly, I'm at the point of being almost stretched too thin as is and simply can't volunteer for ANYTHING else right now. I went to the first parent meeting of Girl Scouts for DD5 tonight and I felt awful for leaving the volunteer section blank. I just can't take on something else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Thinking. . . I could probably find two kids who would casually play around with math with my two. I can't run something like a scout den right now, but this doesn't seem that heavy of a commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 I do mine monthly, although I do post challenges and the like on a private web board as well between times. It really is as much of a commitment as you want it to be (I believe you have to meet 6x with at least 4 members present to qualify as a silver level club-but even that is optional.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 My math club/team meets weekly from Nov. through Feb. in preparation of chapter Mathcounts. We don't meet the rest of the year. I've also taken a bunch of the Math club activites and taught a Math and Logic games class in our homeschool co-op. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 My son's math club met after-school yesterday. He had a good time. Fewer 6th Graders came than I'd have expected (only six), and I'd expect some drop-outs with this sort of thing. Question for you all. Does each school just have one team? So like 10 students actually participate in the Math Counts competition? The others are part of the club, and prepare, but do they have any activities with Math Counts if they are not part of the "team." I assume not, but don't know. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 Given that you can't go to another team if you don't make the cut for your local school team, I'm guessing the math club is supposed to meet the needs of those kids. Club sponsors can order local awards for their team, run in-house competitions, etc for those students. What I see here is the opposite-kids who would love to do it, but their school doesn't have a team. If I could put all the PUBLIC SCHOOLED kids on my team who have parents who have asked me about it when I've tried to find homeschoolers, I'd have no trouble fielding a team. Unless a faculty member is willing to coach, they're out of luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Each school can only send 10 people to the chapter competition. They are a "team" of 4 plus 6 individuals. Everyone does the sprint round and target round as individuals. There is then a team test that the team does together. Typically all the individuals also do the team test together, but only the official team of four get to have their team test graded. For a team score the individual scores of the team members are averaged and then the team test is added. The top teams from the chapter go to state as well as the top individuals (doesn't matter if they were on a team or not). How many actually go from your chapter depends on how big it is (our chapter sends the top 3 teams as well as the top 7 individuals not already going as a team member). At large schools, they can pick the 10 people to send to chapter anyway they want. Some do the Mathcounts school test and send the top 10 individuals. Some feel it's important to take a couple of top 6th graders for their experience. It's up to the coach to name who goes to chapter. BUT, if you don't get one of your school's ten spots then you aren't allowed to go through an alternate organization. Top students make it to state and the top four in the state make it to nationals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 What I see here is the opposite-kids who would love to do it, but their school doesn't have a team. If I could put all the PUBLIC SCHOOLED kids on my team who have parents who have asked me about it when I've tried to find homeschoolers, I'd have no trouble fielding a team. Unless a faculty member is willing to coach, they're out of luck. When I've encountered kids from school that want to do Mathcounts, I've encouraged parents to ask if they can sign up the school and take their child as an individual from that school. It's not as fun as a team or a club, but does open the door of getting them to the competition. All our public middle schools around here compete, but it's the kids I run across in private school that need a way into Mathcounts. I also think that if your schoool does not compete then Mathcounts will make an allowance for how to sign up as an individual, but you'd have to call Mathcounts directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Just to be clear, I'm totally cool with this being an "exposure year" where he can be in the club and have an extra-curricular where he's doing challenging problems in a group setting. Should be fun. Having no pressure isn't a problem. I guessing it would be highly unlikely my boy would be chosen for the team this year. I'm good with that. I just wasn't sure if there were Math Counts activities beyond the club level other than the official competition. Sounds like there is not. I wasn't hoping for an alternative way to get on a team. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Bill, if the chapter competition isn't a great distance, you might consider bringing him to watch the Countdown Round. It's entertaining, and AFAIK, open to the public. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Thank you for posting this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Bill, if the chapter competition isn't a great distance, you might consider bringing him to watch the Countdown Round. It's entertaining, and AFAIK, open to the public. I bet it must be close by (given the density of Los Angeles). I like the suggestion. I think I'd get butterflies just watching other people's kids :D Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 If you've got a kid that's up to the challenge, then the Mathcount Minis are a great resource. The videos are made by Richard Ruscyzk of AoPS. They are done monthly and there is a worksheet that goes with them. Usually there are some warm up problems that the student can do (if the the warmup is too hard, then that month's topic is too hard). Then there is "the problem" which is taught be video - it comes from the previous year's chapter or state test. Then there are the follow up problems that can be solved by the techniques taught in the video. These are fantastic for mathy kids. I agree that watching the countdown round is a lot of fun - also can be intimidating as those kids are fast at doing math. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I just had our first mathcounts weekly meeting. We had 5 kids show up in addition to my own dd. I only have 3 kids who have committed to the team round, but I think I can recruit one more. Each week we cover an old sprint, chapter, or team round that I assign as homework. In January, a few weeks before chapter, I host a team party where we design our t shirts and do a mock countdown round. It's fun, especially for me! I've known several of these homeschooled kids since elementary. Last year, our chapter competition was in my hometown, with 15-20 schools participating. Sadly, NONE of the public middle schools in my hometown (with high underserved minority population) participate. I doubt the parents in this community are even aware of MC. (You can bet the parents in neighboring high-achieving suburbs are very aware.) I'm thinking about recruiting one or both of my dd's to coach a team from local public schools, if we can get our ducks in order. I agree that in some high pressure schools there are likely more than 10 students who want participate on the team. But students at other schools may find the school and chapter level problems are difficult for them, and math club is a way to reach students who aren't ready for official MC. ETA: I should point out that no one should following my example, because we always do TERRIBLY at chapter, and in the 3 years I've been coaching I've NEVER sent anyone to state. Humph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 In fact, since my group is so multi-age, usually my middle schoolers end up mostly using it on their own. How much materials are there in the box typically? DS10 friends are also 6th graders so getting another 3 won't be hard. Problem is if more after schoolers neighbors want their kids to join in and there are not enough to go round. Do I guess for number of middle schoolers for the registration or get a firm count before registering. I'm using the informal group option because friends are in private and public schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 I don't think it changes depending on how many kids you have-last year I had the minimum 4 middle schoolers (since my DD wasn't even able to be counted last year) and got 12 pencils. For the most part, the activities you either make more copies or take turns (for things like the dice games last year). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 My boy estimates there were just under twenty students in the 7th and 8th Grades (combined) and six 6th Graders. So about 25 or so in all. I'd be suprised if any 6th Graders were included on the team. Fine by me. As much as anything I hope the experience is incentive to keep working hard doing AoPS during our breaks at home. He's already seen the problem solving stratagies he's learned paying off. Bill 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 If you've got a kid that's up to the challenge, then the Mathcount Minis are a great resource. The videos are made by Richard Ruscyzk of AoPS. They are done monthly and there is a worksheet that goes with them. Usually there are some warm up problems that the student can do (if the the warmup is too hard, then that month's topic is too hard). Then there is "the problem" which is taught be video - it comes from the previous year's chapter or state test. Then there are the follow up problems that can be solved by the techniques taught in the video. These are fantastic for mathy kids. I agree that watching the countdown round is a lot of fun - also can be intimidating as those kids are fast at doing math. These are awesome! Thanks so much:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I just had our first mathcounts weekly meeting. We had 5 kids show up in addition to my own dd. I only have 3 kids who have committed to the team round, but I think I can recruit one more. Each week we cover an old sprint, chapter, or team round that I assign as homework. In January, a few weeks before chapter, I host a team party where we design our t shirts and do a mock countdown round. It's fun, especially for me! I've known several of these homeschooled kids since elementary. Darn. I just received an email from a girl's mom telling me she won't be participating. I don't know if it's the way I run the meetings or if students aren't well prepared for problem solving at this level. I'll keep my fingers cross that we don't lose any more students this month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 I don't know if it's the way I run the meetings or if students aren't well prepared for problem solving at this level. My kids outside classes started back up last week and one this week. It could be the parent just overscheduled and that it has nothing to do with you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 There's also a high drop out rate between "oh, that sounds cool, sign me up!" and actually committing. I had 22 kids signed up for the NME group-and had 9 at the first meeting (with 6 more who had sent regrets)- the rest just didn't follow through. That's about how it's been every year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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