Math Moves U
Published on Jun 21, 2007 at 3:40 pm.
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Filed under Uncategorized, college teaching.
Raytheon has come up with something that looks very interesting to me. It is called Math Moves U.  This is math contest for kids ages 10 to 14. The contest web page allows contestants to answer various mathematics problems related to a mission to Mars. The questions should be suitable for good math students in that age range. Contestants are entered to win a grand prize of a trip for four to Washington, D.C., to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum for the Mars day festivities on July 20, 2007. The trip comes with a VIP tour of the museum. Other prizes include a Sony PS2 game system, a telescope, or several other prizes. One prize listed in an “acre of land on Mars,” though that would be just a novelty certificate. After all, how would you ever claim it? And, what right does Raytheon have to give away chunks of Mars, anyway?
Ah, but there is more. There are also Math Moves U Scholarships available!  These scholarships are aimed at middle and high school students planning to go to college. Recipients of the scholarships get $1000 to study math in college.
Personally, I think that this is a very good idea. All too often, students in middle school and high school don’t realize that math is going to be important to them later in life. The math courses are difficult, and often unpopular with the “cool” kids. So, students bypass them if possible. But, then they get to college, and they find that they have to take math and science classes in order to graduate. Those classes typically expect and require mathematics at a level beyond what it seems so many of the students are coming out of high school with. Worse, our country is is dire need of more scientists and engineers. However, science and engineering courses require math. All too often, students come to college with only rudimentary mathematical skills, and these skills are insufficient to succeed in even the freshman level engineering and physics classes. Students must then take one to two years of math classes before they can take freshman physics. Effectively, this keeps them from majoring in physics or engineering. However, if they had a better mathematical background coming from high school, then they could go on and take freshman physics when they are a freshman. And, if they decide not to go into physics or engineering, then the extra math classes would not keep them from majoring in English, history, business, etc. So, they would be able to major in anything. But, lacking math skills prohibits them from realistically majoring in certain subjects.
Raytheon, and several other companies, recognizes this problem. So, the Math Moves U program seeks to address the matter by getting students at an earlier age into doing math for fun. If they see that math is fun and useful early on, then the hope is that they’ll continue to see that when they are in high school, and that would give them the ability to major in science or engineering when they get to college.
So, if you know of any kids in the 10 to 14 year old age range, then point them at the Math Moves U web page (click on the image or the text above for the link). But, do it quickly. The contest apparently ends June 25.
-Astroprof
