Math Club / MATHCOUNTS

Hello, Evergreen families! Below, you will find information about middle school Math Club and MATH COUNTS! Scroll down to read about:

• our (non-competitive) Math Club
• the in-person MATHCOUNTS chapter competition in February
• the possibility of administering AMC 8 (a math competition that would take place on campus during regular school hours)
• suggestion donations to help defray costs to the school

Please reach out with any questions that you may have!

The MATHCOUNTS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to making high-quality math problems, puzzles, and skills accessible to middle school students. There are currently two different programs that fall under the MATHCOUNTS umbrella, both of which will be offered this year!

Described as "[a] national program that gives students in grades 6-8 the opportunity to engage with math in a non-competitive, social environment," The National Math Club disseminates monthly math puzzles, challenges, problem sets, and games at no cost to participating schools. This year, we will offer Math Club to all interested middle schoolers with the intention of embedding it into regular school hours. Our middle school schedule does include flex periods, study halls, and other service times to allow for these kinds of opportunities that go beyond core coursework, so we will lean into that structure and find meeting times that work within the context of the school day. Below is an example exploration from the Club Leader Dashboard: Function Battleship!

Function Battleship

MATHCOUNTS does include options for competition, including an in-person regional competition. From the MathCOUNTS website, "The Competition Series has 4 levels of live, in-person math competitions - school, chapter, state and national. Each level of competition is comprised of 4 rounds - Sprint, Target, Team and Countdown Round. Altogether the rounds are designed to take about 3 hours to complete. Usually, beginning in the fall, students work with their coaches to prepare for the competition, using resources provided by MATHCOUNTS. Then, competitions begin in the winter and run through the spring."

Up to 14 students can compete at the regional level, but be warned! The competition typically takes place on a Saturday. In the event that more than 14 students want to participate, we will have a school-level competition to determine who will represent our school at the formal contest.

NEW THIS YEAR: We are also hoping to participate in AMC 8, a math contest that is administered in January during the school day. The cost of adding this option is $100 (total--not per student!), but it would allow students to participate in a national competition without leaving campus (or giving up a weekend!).

Please note: If your student is interested in one of the competitive options, we highly recommend participating in Math Club prior to the start of our competition team meetings. We will try to keep competition-related practices within school hours but may add a few optional after school practices as we get closer to the main event(s).

We are committed to ensuring that all interested students can participate in our extracurricular offerings. If you are currently in a position to contribute, a suggested donation of $10 will help to cover the fee associated with MATHCOUNTS registration and (hopefully) the costs of AMC 8. A transparent breakdown of the costs associated with these math offerings is available below.

We really mean it when we say that students can participate for free, so if you are not currently in a position to donate, please do not let that be a barrier! At the same time, I am trying to be mindful of the current budget constraints that are an ever-present challenge for public schools, so if you are able and inclined to help offset the costs of these clubs/teams, we are in no position to turn down help 😃

Please use the RSVP feature below to indicate which options are of interest to your student. Ignore the date/time listed for now--please do not show up to my classroom at midnight for a Math Club meeting! When we have a sense of numbers and grade levels, we will send home a more formal permission slip that includes our tentative practice schedule (again, within the school day as much as possible) and other logistical details that are relevant to the competitive options.