Mu Alpha Theta
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Mu Alpha Theta (ΜΑΘ) is a United States mathematics honor society for high schools and two-year colleges. It has over 75,000 student members in more than 1,500 schools worldwide. Its main goals are to inspire keen interest in mathematics, develop strong scholarship in the subject, and promote the enjoyment of mathematics in high school and two year college students. The name is a rough transliteration of math into Greek (Mu Alpha Theta).
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[edit] History
The Mu Alpha Theta National High School and Junior College Mathematics Club was founded in 1957 by Dr. Richard V. Andree and his wife, Josephine Andree, at the University of Oklahoma. In Andree's words, Mu Alpha Theta is "an organization dedicated to promoting scholarship in mathematics and establishing math as an integral part of high school and junior college education". The name Mu Alpha Theta was constructed from the Greek lettering for the phonemes m, a, and th.
Pi Mu Epsilon, the National Collegiate Honor Society of Mathematics, contributed funds for the organization's initial expenses; the University of Oklahoma provided space, clerical help and technical assistance. The Mathematical Association of America, a primary sponsor of the organization since 1958, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics nominated the first officers and Board of Governors. The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics became an official sponsor in 1998, followed by The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges in 2002.
The official journal of Mu Alpha Theta, The Mathematical Log, was first issued in 1957 on mimeograph and was in printed form starting in 1958. It was published four times during the school year until 2002 and featured articles, reports, news and problems for students.
Several different awards are given by Mu Alpha Theta, including the Kalin Award to outstanding students. Awards are also given to students who plan to become mathematics teachers. Chapters and chapter sponsors are also recognized by the Sister Scholastica and Huneke awards for most dedicated sponsors.
The first Mu Alpha Theta National Convention was held at the University of Pittsburgh in 1970. Each year the convention brings together hundreds of teachers and students from across the country for five days of math-related events. The 2004 Mu Alpha Theta National Convention was held in Huntsville, Alabama, and was won by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The 2005 Mu Alpha Theta National Convention was held in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was won by Vestavia Hills High School Math Team from Alabama. The 2006 Mu Alpha Theta National Convention was held in Fort Collins, Colorado, and was also won by Vestavia Hills High School. The 2007 Mu Alpha Theta National Convention was held in Tampa, Florida by Christine Brzycki and David Macfarlane of Palm Harbor University High School and was won by Buchholz High School from Gainesville, FL. In today's contests, schools such as Buchholz, Cypress Bay, and Lawton Chiles dominate, although Saint James School is on the rise.
[edit] Competition Levels
Competition is divided into six levels or divisions, Calculus, Pre-calculus, Algebra II, Geometry, Algebra I, and Statistics. At state and national competitions, only three levels are used: Theta (Geometry and Algebra II), Alpha (Pre-Calculus), and Calculus. There is only a Mu division at the nationals level. Most students start at the level of math that they are currently enrolled in or have last taken and progress to higher levels. A student can begin at another level, but it must be higher. The only exception to this is that students enrolled in either Algebra II or Geometry can take whichever of the two they want because not all schools offer these courses in the same sequence. If a student competes in a higher level, such as Pre-Calculus, he/she cannot then go back and compete at the Algebra II level. This encourages students to compete with other students who are taking classes of similar mathematical difficulty.
[edit] Structure of Competitions
ΜΑΘ is primarily a venue for mathematical competition. Different competitions have varying ways to test the students mathematical knowledge. Each student who chooses to participate in a competition takes an "individual" test that corresponds to his or her level of competition. All competitions include this feature. Most individual tests consist of 30 multiple-choice questions(not including tie-breakers), A-E, where answer choice "E" is "None of the Above", or "None of These Answers"; abbreviated NOTA. Students are typically allotted 1 hour for the entire test. They are graded on the following scale: +4 points for a correct answer, -1 points for an incorrect answer that was chosen, and 0 points if the question was left blank. This scoring system makes guessing statistically neutral. 120 points is considered a perfect score. Some competitions use alternate, but equivalent systems of scoring, such as +5 for a correct answer, 0 for an incorrect answer and +1 for a blank. A perfect score under this system would be 150. Students such as Ray Peng and Sabastian Vidal consistently score high using this system.
Tie-breakers are only done for students who tie, but did not get a perfect score. They are sometimes used in the case for when money is being distributed to the winners of the competition, and a tie breaker will be used even if both students have a perfect score. Tie-breakers are conducted according to the "sudden death" method. For example, in a tie-breaker, if student A scored the same as student B, and each missed 1 question, the student who missed question #5 will win over the student missed question #3; students who start missing questions last are ranked higher, given same scores. All students that score a 120 are considered to place 1st. Due to the large number of students, as compared to a typical high school classroom, who participate in competitions, scantrons are used as answer sheets; their main advantage is that they can be graded by a computer. These are similar in type to the answer sheets used in standardized tests such as the SAT and the ACT.
In most competitions the sponsor or "coach" is allowed to select 4 students per division to participate in a "team" test. Each team member sits with the rest of their team and is allowed to communicate and collaborate during the team round. A few competitions do not allow the team members to sit together; rather every member of the division takes the team test alone and without conversing, then the 4 highest scores are averaged together; these 4 people are on team. Some competitions allow each school to have a second team for each division, "Team II".
The grading scale is different for the team round. Questions are given one by one, whereas in the individual round students are given the test in its entirety. There are usually 12 questions(not including tie-breakers), and each team has 4 minutes to answer the question. If they answer the question correctly before the first minute, they receive 16 points, if they answer before the second they receive 12 points, before 3 minutes, 8 points, 4 points before 4 minutes has expired and 0 points for anything, even the correct answer, after 4 minutes. In some competitions, a sliding scale is used. For example, if no team turned in an answer to a particular question in the first minute but another team answered correctly in the second minute, the team will be awarded the full 16 points even though they answered it in the second minute. The answer is usually written in and the students are not penalized for guessing. The team score from the team round is then summed up with the score of the individuals of the team to acquire the total team score used in rankings.
A "sweepstakes" award is given to the school whose students average the best performance in each test or division. Sweepstakes points are awarded on a t-score based system, which awards points not only for relative place, but for relative scores. Students or teams who win by a large margin, relative to the standard deviation of the rest of the group, contribute higher t-scores to their teams. T-scores from each test and team round are added to comprise the total sweepstakes score of a school, which is usually adjusted so that it is non-negative. Some tests, such as trivia competitions, may be excluded from sweepstakes calculations.
