THE NUMBERS GAME: UNIVERSITY HONORS JHS MATH DEPARTMENT

No teacher of mathematics would deny that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Few Missouri drivers, meanwhile, would claim that Highway 72 "goes" in a straight line.

Deviations of straightness aside, Jackson and Rolla, the cities at both ends of the historic Missouri highway, have established a successful math connection.

Dr. Leon Hall, chairman of the University of Missouri-Rolla Mathematics and Statistics Department, presented Jackson High School with its Excellence in Mathematics Award on Thursday. Hall, who said he took the aforementioned scenic route to Jackson, presented the plaque to Carol Keen, long-time Math Department chair at JHS.

The university charted the progress of its incoming freshmen in math courses and crosschecked to see how students of various high schools performed. The five-year period tracked (from the fall of 1995 through the fall of 1999) saw 22 JHS graduates go through UMR math courses as freshmen. These 22 ranked among the best at the university.

"We looked at the records of first semester math courses and were able to sort students by high schools," Hall said. "The reason we picked first semester freshman courses was that the student's high school background would have the biggest impact on their grade. After their first semester we have a chance at them ourselves."

"It's terrific," Keen said. "It's a validation of what we've been trying to in the classroom in working with the students."

Working with the students is something the JHS faculty does above and beyond the call of duty, according to Principal Rick McClard.

"We have a very strong math department," McClard said. "We have a dedicated staff that works with students a lot, both in the classroom and out. They do a lot of tutoring and work with students before and after school."

I want to commend the school," Hall said. "This doesn't necessarily mean you sent your best math students to Rolla, but that you sent students who know how to learn. It reflects well on your school."

The UMR Mathematics and Statistics Department has defined five emphasis areas: actuarial science, algebra/discrete mathematics, applied analysis, computational mathematics and statistics. Most of the JHS graduates took calculus I, calculus II, trigonometry or algebra as freshmen. He said the two who took calculus II both made A's.

The university honored 13 high schools in three classes. Size classes were based on number of freshman students enrolled in UMR math classes during the survey period. Jackson was in the highest category, with 20 or more students.

"As you know, it's harder to maintain a high average with a higher number of students," Hall told the JHS math faculty. "This is quite an accomplishment."

He also gave the math teachers a Hewlett-Packard 49G calculator and a projector to go with it. The calculator is the type the university is now using. Hall called it a "very nice graphics calculator."

"It's quite an accomplishment," McClard said. "The math faculty works very hard and the students work very hard. We have a lot of college preparatory math classes. It pays off when you receive this type of recognition."

Hall also briefed the math teachers on the his department and the UMR campus in general, noting that sample freshman exams are available on the department's web site at http://www.umr.edu/~mathstat.