Washington Mathematics

August 2019

When I was a child, I used to get puzzle books out of the library. One of the puzzles was the twelve-coin problemhttps://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/12coin/, the most difficult of all coin weighing problems. My mother and I worked on it separately at the same time, and she solved it first. Some time later that evening she came into my room to find me in tears of frustration. Instead of helping me, she asked: “Do you want me to tell you the solution?” I said no and she left. I will never forget the joy when I finally figured it out.

WSMC Member, I am glad to share with you some of the great work the board has been doing for our organization and some resources for you. For the last year as a board we have been focusing our efforts as an organization on 3 major areas: support for educators, fostering a love of math, and making connections. As part of this effort we have reinvented the Washington Mathematics Journal and transformed it into this interactive electronic newsletter.

This summer I had the pleasure of attending the NCTM Affiliates Leaders Conference in Denver with Tami Matsumoto our President Elect and Sasha Hammond our Newsletter Chair and Treasurer. While there, we got some new ideas on how to do some restructuring to provide our members better resources. One Idea that will be put into place will be an electronic book study for which you can earn free clock hours for around Jo Boaler’s new book Limitless Mind.

We also had a work retreat this summer in Prosser, WA where work has already started on improving our social media presence, so make sure you follow us on Twitter @wsmcmath and in our Facebook Group, Washington State Mathematics Council (WSMC).

As the new school year starts we will be having our Fall Board Retreat in September where I am excited to welcome Matt Pederson and Kristi Martin to our board. If you are looking for a chance to grow your math leadership skills please contact me at dherforth@bethelsd.org as we still have some leadership positions available.

Sincerely,

Dan Herforth

Washington State Mathematics Council President

High schools across Washington qualified at regional competitions and were invited to State at Central Washington University. There were Project presentations on plastic waste in communities, participants worked on problems related to Gerrymandering, contextually rich problems were solved, and finally a sort of “math bee” called Knowdown was held. For six hours, high schools students working in teams or individually and their coaches discussed math in the context of current issues. Many left with ribbons, plaques, new calculators and software, and nearly twenty left with $1000 tuition waivers to CWU. Join us next year for the qualifying regional competitions at ten locations around the state on March 11, 2020 and maybe we will see you at CWU on April 18, 2020. Don’t miss out. Visit WSMC’s website wsmc.net or email Jim.Miller@cwu.edu for more information.

On Saturday, April 27, 2019 almost 2000 students participated in the Middle Grades Math Olympiad, a collaborative, standards-based problem-solving event provided by WSMC for students in grades 5 through 8. Nearly 500 teams from approximately 100 different schools came together at 12 sites across the state, meeting mathematical challenges from the domains at their grade level and demonstrating the eight mathematical practices.

The Math Olympiad began at a single site in 1995 and has blossomed to now include most of Washington State. This year there were sites in Wapato and Richland in the east, Vancouver in the south, Aberdeen in the west, and Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula, along with sites in the I-5 corridor at Edmonds, Lake Stevens, and multiple sites in Seattle. Sadly, there were not enough sites to include all the teams that had hoped to participate, so we are asking for more people to be site hosts so ALL students who want to engage in meaningful math together on Saturday, April 25, 2020 are able to participate. Sites in the Seattle area are especially needed. We offer help and mentoring for anyone interested in providing this opportunity next spring. Please contact us at mocoordinators@gmail.com for more information.

Part of the Olympiad is a t-shirt design contest. This year the winning design for the t-shirt was created by Niah Pham from Enatai Elementary in the Bellevue School District. Her design was printed on over 1000 shirts, and she received a gift card with our congratulations and a supply of shirts for winning the contest.

WSMC Educator Support Fund

The Washington State Mathematics Council provides funds to support mathematics-related initiatives, identified by members via an application. Individual awards range from $50 to $500.

Awards

Washington State Mathematics Council supports outstanding math educators by offering three awards. Two WSMC members, each an outstanding mathematics educator, are honored annually. The Hall of Fame Award is given to honor an outstanding contributor to the field of mathematics education, one who has given time and effort over a long period of time (ten years or more).

Rita Lowe Scholarships

WSMC gives annual scholarships in the amount of $1000, awarded to:

• high school students planning to become math teachers
  
• college students planning to become math teachers, and
  
• math teachers pursuing further professional growth.
  

Future Events…

WSMC Board Retreat

September 14-15 2019

Ellensburg, WA

Fall WSMC Board Meeting

October 26, 2019

10am-3:30pm

Walter Strom MS, Cle Elum, WA

Positions Available!

Email: wsmcnewsletter@wsmc.net
Website: http://www.wsmc.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1009626579140702/?ref=bookmarks
Twitter: @wsmcmath