ALEXANDRIA, VA — (Marketwire) — 09/27/11 — , the nation-s premiere middle school mathematics education program, today launches a new competition for the 2011-12 school year. Brought to you by MATHCOUNTS and lead sponsor the Department of Defense, the Reel Math Challenge is a free competition that will engage more American middle school students in mathematics by linking their problem-solving skills to their creative use of visual arts.
MATHCOUNTS hopes to use the new program to continue to excite students about math while allowing them to hone their creativity and communication skills. Students will form teams consisting of four students each to create a video based on one of the problems included in the MATHCOUNTS School Handbook, published each year and distributed free of charge to every middle school in the country. Each video must teach the solution to the selected math problem as well as demonstrate the real-world application of the math concept used in the problem.
All videos will be posted to , where the general public will vote on the best videos. The 20 videos with the highest vote totals will advance to the semifinals of the competition, after which a panel of MATHCOUNTS judges will review them and select four finalists. The judges panel will include a cross section of individuals representing MATHCOUNTS staff, educational technology experts, mathematics education professionals, and the entertainment industry. The panel is proud to include amongst its members Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-nominated producer, Mr. Steven Haft.
Each of the four finalist teams will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2012 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition and an HTC Flyer tablet. The teams will present their videos to the 224 students participating in the national competition, and those Mathletes will select one of the four videos to be the winner of the Reel Math Challenge. Each member of the winning team will receive a $1,000 college scholarship.
“We are extremely excited about the launch of the Reel Math Challenge,” said Lou DiGioia, executive director of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. “This new competition is innovative and unique in that it allows students from across the country to work with each other and utilize technology to create and share digital math videos that will be viewed by people around the world. At the same time, students will be building the critical problem-solving skills they need in life while also having fun.”
Once the winning team has been determined, all videos will be archived for public use free of charge. Since each video corresponds to a specific MATHCOUNTS problem, all videos will be indexed to specific math concepts, difficulty levels, and Common Core State Standards. This library of videos will be a powerful teaching tool for both teachers and students.
The submission period for videos is now open and will remain open through February 1, 2012. Public voting begins November 15, 2011 and will remain open through February 1, 2012. For more information, visit .
MATHCOUNTS () is America-s only nationwide enrichment, club, and competition program that motivates and rewards middle school students for math achievement.
Mission: To secure America-s global competitiveness, MATHCOUNTS inspires excellence, confidence and curiosity in U.S. middle school students through fun and challenging math programs.
Reach:
Over the past 29 years, millions of students have participated in MATHCOUNTS programs and been exposed to MATHCOUNTS problems in the classroom, resulting in the development of essential critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
More than 125,000 students in more than 7,000 schools register annually to participate in MATHCOUNTS Programs.
MATHCOUNTS currently distributes program information, curriculum and materials to more than 48,000 middle schools.
A 501(c)(3) organization, funding for MATHCOUNTS comes primarily from its National Sponsors: Raytheon Company, U.S. Department of Defense, Northrop Grumman Foundation, National Society of Professional Engineers, Bezos Family Foundation, ConocoPhillips, CNA Foundation, Texas Instruments Incorporated, ThinkFun and 3M Foundation. MATHCOUNTS was founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
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MATHCOUNTS Launches “Reel Math Challenge”
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