By Jovanna Brinck
Courier Staff Reporter
Students looking for an opportunity for scholarships and who have an interest in math should look into Moody’s Mega Math Challenge.
In this challenge, groups of 3-5 students will have just fourteen hours to solve an open-ended, math-modeling problem that focuses on real-world, current issues.
The competition starts at 12:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 27 and ends at 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, February 28, 2016. The challenge is done electronically, and teams must download the problem onto a computer to begin the challenge. Once a team has downloaded the problem, it has only fourteen hours to complete it. The challenge completely stops at 11:59 PM EST that Sunday, regardless of how much time the teams have left to complete the problem.
The rules are as follows. Students competing in the challenge must register through a high school in the US. If a student is homeschooled, they should either try to team up with other homeschooled students or join their local high school’s team. Each high school can only have up to 2 teams registered, and there must be a mentor/teacher for each high school. The team must be comprised entirely of only juniors and seniors in high school, no exceptions.
Mr. Prucha, an advanced math teacher in rooms 51 and 52, is willing to be a math mentor for Logan. If students are interested in the challenge, they should go talk to him.
The scholarship prizes add up to $60,000 for the top six teams. First place gets $20,000, second place gets $15,000, third place gets $10,000, and fourth, fifth, and six each get $5,000. Also, judges have the option to award semi-finalists $1,500 and honorable mentions $1,000. The coaches of all finalist teams are awarded $500 each to be paid to a department, activity, or club within the school district.
For more information about registration and rules go to https://m3challenge.siam.org/. There, you can look up important dates and register your school into the challenge. Registration is open from now until February 19th 4pm EST.