JACKSON JOINS 35 AREA SCHOOLS IN COMPETE IN ANNUAL MATH FIELD DAY

Over 700 students from 36 area schools, including Jackson, will compete in the annual Math Field Day April 23 on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

Area schools participating are Cape Girardeau Central Senior High School, Fredericktown High School, Jackson Junior High School, Malden High School, Meadow Heights High School, Oak Ridge High School, Notre Dame High School, Portageville High School, Potosi Senior High School, Puxico High School.

The event, in its 19th year at Southeast, is sponsored by Southeast's Department of Mathematics and the Southeast Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Students will have the opportunity to compete in 21 individual events, five team events and two problem-solving events, including "Mathletics."

Math Field Day is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with events taking place across campus. Registration begins at 9 a.m. in Academic Hall followed by an opening welcome at 9:30 a.m. The first competition events begin at 10 a.m. The last events are scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. An awards presentation will be held at 2 p.m. in Academic Auditorium.

Mathletics is a fast-paced event in which teams of four students work simultaneously on problems for periods of 15 seconds to two minutes. The students compete to see who can score the most points for correct answers. Members of the Southeast Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics will judge the event. Mathletics will take place from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

In other events, ninth-grade students will compete in the areas of word problems and number bases. Tenth-grade students will compete in algebra I and geometry. Eleventh-graders will compete in algebra II, word problems, and exponential and log functions. Twelfth-grade students will compete in the categories of matrices and determinants, analytic geometry and calculus.

Team events will be held in algebra I, algebra II, geometry, trigonometry and a medley of mathematical subjects. Open events will include computer programming, history of mathematics, sets and logic, geometry, trigonometry, computational mathematics, algebra, probability, mental arithmetic, number theory and hand calculator use.