Giving the AMC Contests at Your College/University
| Steven R. Dunbar |
This article is published in the December 2011/January 2012 issue of MAA FOCUS.
The MAA’s high school mathematics contests have been taking place for more than 60 years, and they are popular with high-ability mathematics students. In an effort both to reach more students and to help connect colleges and universities with those high-ability students, the MAA’s American Mathematics Competitions program encourages mathematicians to administer these venerable and widely appreciated math contests at their institutions.
I am frequently asked about what to do to administer a contest. My staff has a good idea of the ins and outs of doing so, but I decided to get first-hand experience. In February 2011, I administered the 2011 AMC 10 B and 2011 AMC 12 B contests at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This is a record of what I did, offered as a template for giving the contests at your college or university.
One begins by registering with the AMC office for the contest using either the online registration or the paper form. We encourage colleges and universities to register for the B date, which is February 22, 2012, this school year. Doing so gives the really eager and involved students another chance to try the contests. Also, it provides a fallback location and date if a snow day occurs on the first date at schools that don’t have a fallback date. (Having a fallback position of your own is important for anxious and stressed students who believe they missed a chance.)
Order the minimum of 10 contests for the AMC 10, which covers the ninth- and tenth-grade curriculum and 10 contests for the AMC 12 for the 11th- and 12th- grade levels. You can order additional contests in multiples of 10 when you have an exact count of the participants.
Next, reserve a room or location on your campus for giving the contests. We used a classroom-sized room normally used for departmental seminars. Since the contest was administered in the morning while most seminars meet in the afternoon, it was convenient and available.
We then sent a letter to schools within 50 miles of the campus. We believed that was a reasonable distance for students to travel to the contest, have some time on campus, and return home all in a day. In the letter, we included information about the contests from the AMC website and instructions on how to register with us so we would get a count of participants. Be sure to include information about parking and directions to reach the site.
As schools and students contacted us, we kept a simple spreadsheet of registration information. We had columns for the student name, email address (especially important if the student was an individual participant), school name, teacher’s name, and contact information (if the students were coming as a group with a teacher), and which contest they wanted to take.
We asked for a deposit of $4 per student. The administering college or university usually pays the contest registration fee. We have discovered an interesting psychology about the deposit. If we charge nothing, then at the last minute if even the most minor obstacle occurs, participants tend not to show up because they have no investment in the activity. A deposit, even as small as this, less than a fast-food meal and less than half the price of a movie ticket, is compelling.
We asked the students to arrive at 9:45, but many were here earlier, eager and ready to start. We had three people: myself as master of ceremonies, Rachelle Jensen to handle administration and registration activities, and Whitney Emanuel to take photos. We had about 20 registrants, and 17 showed up. I took a few minutes for orientation and organization, and started the contests at 10:15, ending the prescribed 75 minutes later at 11:30. We gathered the contest papers, and Rachelle and Whitney did the unofficial scoring in another room.
While that tallying took place, I got the students up and active. I used topics from Math Circles resources, in particular the Conway Tangles activity and origami construction of mathematical shapes. (See mathteacherscircle.org and mathcircles.org—or better yet, join the SIGMAA on Math Circles for Students and Teachers.) I chose the Conway tangles because it gets some students out of their chairs, and the rest of the students can work in pairs to discover the arithmetic that “magically” untangles the ropes. I also chose origami because when it is done, the students have a takeaway from the day that is colorful and mathematically relevant. This is a great time to take photos and get to know the students.
About takeaways: The students can take the contest booklets and the solutions, so some great mathematics goes home with them, but beyond that, it is nice to give them a pen or other memento from the college. You can usually obtain those from your admissions office, and don’t forget to pick up some college brochures, applications, and scholarship forms, too. T-shirts with the college or team logo are popular prizes. Maybe you have some witty mathematics T-shirts from your department to award. Be creative with what earns a prize, such as greatest distance traveled or largest group or greatest team score.
Shortly before 12:30 p.m., we announced the results of our unofficial scoring and awarded prizes for the high scores. The AMC office does the official scoring with statistical aggregation and reports results to the registering institution within three weeks of the contest.
After the prizes, the test-takers had lunch together in a dorm. While they enjoyed themselves (one even had lunch with her older sister!), the AMC staffers had a great conversation with the teachers who had accompanied students.
We finished up with a stroll across campus and a talk from the admissions office. Next time, we might shorten it to a tour of campus highlighting the science, engineering, and mathematics departments.
Altogether, we were pleasantly surprised to find how easy the whole process was, and how smoothly it went. Everyone enjoyed the experience, and we scored a few points for mathematics while the students scored a few points on the contests.
Steven R. Dunbar is director of the American Mathematics Competitions.