UH’s second annual middle and high school math competition
This Saturday, the UH math department hosted the 2nd annual middle and high school math competition. This is the second year I’ve volunteered. The first hour or so was pretty boring– another guy and I just stood around, sometimes directing team coaches to the lounge and snack room the department had set up for them; I also ate way too many donuts. But after completed tests started coming in, I got to help grading them.
I assisted with the Algebra II and Geometry tests– these weren’t entire lightweight tests– the UH profs who designed them tried to make them challenging, but not impossible. The year before, even the senior undergrads here had trouble with them. Unfortunately, the grades were still pretty dismal. I remember someone remarking that the highest score on one of the test subjects was a 2 out of 20. Although overall the performance was piss poor, I did see some pretty good grades on the Geometry test: the first test I graded, which ended up being the best in the subject, got a score of 26 out of 30. I haven’t seen the results, but I’m willing to bet that the scores tended to be higher in Geometry: because I noticed the unfavorable comparison between Geometry and Algebra II scores, and also because Geometry is more intuitive.
I wonder what the math department gets out of this: data on potential recruits?, educational statistics?