2004-05

In 2004 - 05, we began our third (and final!) club, so had Fibonaccians for 4th-6th grade, Euclideans for 7th-8th grade, and Newtonians for 9th-12th grade.

Fibonaccians:

Alecia	Emma	Martin	Rachel
Asher	Heather	Meredith	Sophie
Cascade	James G.	Nathan
Elizabeth	Jonathan	Noelani

Euclideans:

Ben	Jeremy	Nick
Cameron	Jonathan	Peter
Elias	Josh	Timothy
James D.	Michael	Zack

Newtonians:

Chris	Susannah
Peter	William
Rebecca

Math Olympiad division E:

This was the primary focus in the Fibonaccians.  Over 100,000 students from 4600 teams participated in the two divisions (elementary & middle school).  We practiced past Math Olympiad problems each week, and did the 5 contests that make up this competition.  This challenging competition is aimed at 4th to 6th graders.  Each year, those students who participated in earlier years improve a lot--all that practice is paying off!  James G. scored 5 out of 5 on four rounds; Jonathan scored 5 out of 5 on three rounds and 4 out of 4 on two rounds; Martin and Sophie each scored 4 out of 5 on one round.

Participants -- Alecia, Asher, Cascade, Elizabeth, Emma, Heather, James G., Jonathan, Martin, Meredith, Nathan, Noelani, Rachel, & Sophie

Place in our club	Student
1st (tie)	James G. and Jonathan
2nd	Martin
3rd	Sophie

James G., Jonathan, Martin & Sophie each earned a patch for the distinction of scoring in the top 50% of all contestants.  James G. & Jonathan also each earned a gold pin for scoring in the top 2% of all participants.

The Math Olympiads were very challenging for most of our 4th graders and younger.  But I am very pleased with the progress and perseverance I saw in each one.  I feel that despite the difficulty of the problems, the students benefited from being exposed to some higher-level concepts.  I encouraged them to stretch themselves beyond what they thought they could do, and to think creatively.  I suspect many of the parents got a mental workout, too! :)

Math Olympiad division M:

This was an important part of the Euclideans' club.  Over 100,000 students from 4600 teams participated in the two divisions (elementary & middle school).  We did the 5 contests that make up this challenging competition, which is aimed at 7th to 8th graders.  Peter scored 5 out of 5 on four rounds; Jonathan scored 5 out of 5 on one round; Cameron & Timothy each scored 4 out of 5 on two rounds; Elias, James D., Jeremy & Jonathan each scored 4 out of 5 on one round.

Participants -- Ben, Cameron, Elias, James D., Jeremy, Jonathan, Josh, Michael, Nick, Peter, Timothy & Zack

Cameron, Elias, James D., Jeremy, Jonathan, Nick, Peter, & Timothy earned a patch for the distinction of scoring in the top 50% of all contestants.  Peter & Jonathan also each earned a silver pin for scoring in the top 10% of all participants.

MathCounts:

We used MathCounts materials as the basis of our Euclideans' homework each week.  This challenging 6th-8th grade competition is the most widely done math competition among U.S. school children of this age group.  About 500,000 students from 6,000 schools participated in this contest.  Each school is permitted to enter only one team of four plus up to four individuals.  Our team comprised of Peter, Cameron, Nick, & Elias.  We had a great time at Georgia Tech in February, among stiff competition from other Gwinnett County schools.  Our boys competed in individual and team rounds, and just for fun, in a live "countdown" round.  Last year we were at the bottom of the pile, and could only move up.  This year, our team came an incredible 7th out of 9 schools that participated from Gwinnett County, edging out both Snellville Middle School (>1600 students) and Wesleyan School (>1000 students)!  Peter came 11th in Gwinnett County on the individual rounds, qualifying for advancement to state level.

AMC-8:

This is a challenging contest, aimed at 7th and 8th graders.  154,590 students from 2,595 schools participated in this contest in November.

Participants -- Cameron, James D., James G., Jeremy, Jonathan, Josh, Michael, Nick, Peter, Timothy

place in our club	Student
1st	Peter
2nd	Jonathan
3rd	Nick, Timothy (tie)

Jonathan also earned a special merit award for scoring in the top 2% of all 6th graders and under.  Jonathan and James G. also earned a special award for achieving the Georgia Merit Roll.  Here are statistics on how our students who scored in the top 50% did:

Student	Grade level	Georgia ranking for student's grade	World ranking for student's grade	percentile (world)
Peter	7th	12th out of 823	1,340th out of 51,679	97.4%
Jonathan	5th	1st out of 6	58th out of 1496	96.1%
James G.	5th	2nd out of 6	183rd out of 1496	87.8%
Timothy	7th	138th out of 823	7,077 out of 51,679	86.3%
Nick	8th	374th out of 1,648	17,407 out of 84,399	79.4%
Cameron	8th	526th out of 1,648	23,564 out of 84,399	72.1%
Jeremy	8th	856th out of 1,648	39,402 out of 84,399	53.3%

Rocket City Math League:

This was a new competition for us this year, partly sponsored by ex-astronauts in Huntsville, AL!  In this competition, levels of participation are determined by what math courses the student has already completed, competing in divisions called Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.  Our students competed in each of these divisions, which had 3 rounds each over a period of several months.

Participants -- Chris, Jonathan, Peter, Susannah, William

Berry College math contests:

Some very gracious staff & students from Berry College hosted a series of free live math contests which we were thrilled to discover.  Our club participated in the 7th/8th grade and high school competitions.  We definitely plan on participating in the Berry College contests again next year!  They were a complete success in every way--our students had fun, were challenged, got to visit a beautiful college campus, and had a wonderful opportunity to compete in a live contest!

The 7th / 8th grade contest involved 175 students from 25 schools.  We sent four team members (Cameron, Jeremy, Jonathan, Peter) and one alternate (James D.).  The contest consisted of three rounds--individual, ciphering, and team.  The organizers reported that it was *very* challenging, and the scores reflected that.  I am thrilled to report that our team came 9th out of the 25 schools represented, and Jonathan came 9th out of the 100 students (the other 75 students were alternates, so did not compete).

The high school contest involved over 100 students from 18 schools.  We sent four team members (Chris, Peter, Rebecca, William) to the fall contest.  The contest consisted of three rounds--individual, ciphering, and team.  Our team did very well, coming 13th out of the 18 schools represented (most were 12th graders; our oldest team members were 10th graders), and Rebecca came 8th out of the 72 students (the other students were alternates, so did not compete).  We also sent a team (Chris, Peter, Rebecca, Susannah) to the smaller spring contest.  This time our team came 6th out of 9 schools, and Rebecca came 7th out of the 36 students.

AMC-10:

This is a very challenging contest, aimed at 9th and 10th graders.  Over 100,000 students from over 3,500 schools participated in this contest in February.

Participants -- Cameron, Chris, Elias, Jonathan, Nick, Peter, Susannah, William

place in our club	Student
1st	Peter
2nd	Susannah
3rd	Chris

Peter also earned a certificate of achievement for a 8th-grade-or-under high score, and a bronze medal for being the school winner two years in a row.  Here are statistics on how our students who scored in the top 50% did:

Student	Grade level	Georgia ranking for student's grade	World ranking for student's grade	percentile (world)
Peter	7th	1st out of 1	36th out of 569	93.7%
Susannah	9th	43rd out of 196	3515th out of 26452	86.7%
Chris	10th	69th out of 271	7437th out of 36012	79.3%
Jonathan	5th (ranked as a 6th grader)	1st out of 1	75th out of 191	60.7%

Mandelbrot:

This is a difficult four-round high school competition, run as both an individual and team competition.  We came 74th out of 93 teams in the Eastern Region (all the states east of the Mississippi).  Individually, Rebecca came 52nd in the Eastern Region.  These are phenomenal results, especially considering that age-wise, our students range from 7th to 10th grade, and we are a *very* small high school math club!  Here's the results for our team:

Participants -- Chris, Peter, Rebecca, Susannah, William

Place in our club	Student
1st	Rebecca
2nd	Peter
3rd	Susannah

AMC-12:

This is an extremely difficult contest, aimed at 11th and 12th graders.  Over 125,000 students from over 4,100 schools participated in this contest.

Participants -- Rebecca

Rebecca scored very highly on the AMC-12, coming 14th in Georgia for her grade level, and 5513th in the world, which is the 95.7% (percentile).  She earned a certificate of achievement for a 10th-grade-or-under high score, and also received the high honor of participating in the AIME, which is by invitation only.  In the AIME, Rebecca came 3145th out of over 11,000 students, which is the 71.9%.  Note that Rebecca could have participated in the AMC-10, but instead opted for this more difficult AMC-12 competition as an added challenge to herself.

Fun Days

The Fibonaccians did our traditional math-tree-hunt . . .

The Euclideans also did our traditional math-tree-hunt . . .

The Newtonians had origami fun . . .

Awards Ceremony update

We had about 65 folks for this year's ceremony!  Our speaker (Noelani's dad!), Mr. David, encouraged the kids do do their best in school, spoke of his love for math and God, and how God is very mathematical in the way he created everything.  The students all received their awards.  This year, the Fibonaccians' most improved award went to Martin, and the Euclideans' most improved award went to James D.  We again enjoyed a variety of amazingly creative math-related snacks!

Additional congratulations to Rebecca, who has graduated from home school, and is entering college in the fall!

Well done, everyone!