Middle School “Mathlete” Mathematics Competition

Thursday, May 24, 2018, 6pm (day prior to start of Balticon)

Location: Homeland Room on the fifth floor of the Balticon hotel. (Near the 5th floor elevators)

Balticon is hosting a special event this year for young mathletes. We will be conducting a Science Fiction Mathematics Contest for middle school students. The contest will be 90 minutes long. Elementary school students are welcome to participate if they feel ready for such an event at a middle school level. The prizes are as follows:

  • First prize: A $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com and a free membership to Balticon 52
  • Second prize: A $50 gift certificate from Amazon.com and a free membership to Balticon 52
  • Third prize: A $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com and a free membership to Balticon 52.
  • Young Mathletes prize: A $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com and a free membership to Balticon 52.
The Young Mathletes prize is for the top scoring elementary school student (who hasn’t already won a prize). All students will receive a nifty Balticon 52 certificate of participation. There is no registration fee for the contest and participants don’t need to be a member of Balticon to take part of the contest itself. Pizza, snacks, and beverages will be provided.

Schedule:
6:00-6:15: Sign-in, have pizza, socialize
6:15-6:45: Round one.
6:45:-7:00: Break.
7:00-7:30:  Round two: Individual Guts style round.
In round one, students receive a set of 20 problems and they have 30 minutes to solve as many as they can. The difficulty level is Mathcounts Chapter Sprint, for those familiar with math contests. In the guts round, students get a set of problems, which they solve as fast as they can. When they are ready, they bring up those and get the next set. The challenge is to find a balance between speed and accuracy.

Parents, if your mathlete would like to participate, please send an email to Catherine Asaro at asaro@pobox.com with their name, grade, school, whether or not they have any food allergies, and whether or not we have permission to post their name as a winner if they win an award.

The Balticon science fiction math contest is supported in part by a grant from the Frank and Lucille Memorial Fund.