{"id":17620,"date":"2024-05-27T10:15:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T14:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/article\/new-brunswick-mathematics-competition\/"},"modified":"2024-06-02T16:18:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T20:18:29","slug":"new-brunswick-mathematics-competition","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/article\/new-brunswick-mathematics-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"New Brunswick Mathematics Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Le D\u00e9partement de math\u00e9matiques et de statistique de l’Universit\u00e9 du Nouveau-Brunswick, ainsi que la Facult\u00e9 des sciences de l’Universit\u00e9 de Moncton, invitent les \u00e9l\u00e8ves de 7e<\/sup>, 8e<\/sup> et 9e<\/sup> ann\u00e9es de la province du Nouveau-Brunswick \u00e0 participer au trente-neuvi\u00e8me (39e<\/sup>) concours annuel de math\u00e9matiques <\/strong>qui aura lieu le vendredi 10<\/em> mai 2024<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be noted that the Competition will be written on the same day and at the same time on the campuses of l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Moncton at Moncton, Edmundston and Shippagan and on both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses of the University of New Brunswick.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le concours sera disponible en anglais et en fran\u00e7ais sur les cinq campus. N\u00e9anmoins, toutes les activit\u00e9s autres que le concours lui-m\u00eame se d\u00e9rouleront:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 en anglais \u00e0 Fredericton <\/strong>et Saint John<\/strong>;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 en fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 Shippagan <\/strong>et \u00e0 Edmundston<\/strong>;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 et dans les deux langues \u00e0 Moncton<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Des gagnants provinciaux seront identifi\u00e9s en comparant les r\u00e9sultats obtenus aux cinq lieux de comp\u00e9tition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above information represents a blend of the content from the UNB and l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Moncton websites pertaining to the recent New Brunswick Mathematics Competition\/Concours de Math\u00e9matiques du Nouveau-Brunswick. A total of 858 students participated in the event held over five campuses with 312, 320 and 226 in Grades 7, 8 and 9 respectively. Each of the locations hosts the contest in the morning followed by lunch and various afternoon activities preceding a closing ceremony with the award presentations. My experience with the local activities is at the Fredericton campus of UNB. Some observations and comments concerning the day in Fredericton follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers’ Reception<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically hosting this event is my primary involvement on the day of the contest. A room is offered for teachers (and chaperones) to gather while the students are writing the contests. The teachers come from a variety of schools as middle schools in the province include Grades 7 and 8, whereas, secondary schools include Grade 9. Some teachers from smaller communities may teach in Grades K-8, 6-12, or even K-12 schools. The reception offers a chance to enjoy some social time with colleagues including those who may teach in other parts of the province. A few puzzles are made available. However, the focal point quickly becomes the contest papers that are made available to them about five minutes into the official start times of the competition. Teachers can freely collect any of the six papers (three each in French or English).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating schools at the Fredericton campus extend to the Miramichi area in the north and to McAdam in the south with much of the river valley from around Perth-Andover area through to Cambridge Narrows. Some students have travelled in excess of two hours before arriving on campus, and select schools may have students arrive the evening before while staying in residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of grades 7, 8, and 9 have separate grade specific contests that require teachers to drop off and gather students in separate locations usually in different buildings in Fredericton. Hence, many teachers arrive to the reception in advance of the writing time though must leave a bit prior to the completion time. The contest is one hour in duration with 26 multiple choice questions (10 Part A, 10 Part B, and 6 Part C). The questions are worth 3, 4 and 5 points in the respective parts making a possible score of 100. A penalty of one-quarter of the value of a question is applied to incorrect answers. Some overlap will appear with select questions. For instance, the following 2023 question appeared as #13 in Grade 9, #15 in Grade 8 and #18 in Grade 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which of these numbers is the average (mean) of the other four numbers listed as choices?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A) 13 (B) 19 (C) 20 (D) 21 (E) 22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lequel des nombres ci-dessous est la moyenne des quatre autres nombres pr\u00e9sents dans la liste<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

des choix de r\u00e9ponse?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A) 13 (B) 19 (C) 20 (D) 21 (E) 22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reception offers a valuable connection with teachers with the continuity being welcomed. The 2023 gathering was appreciated in a special way by all after the hiatus from the contest in the preceding years. Ryan Jones of Education and Early Childhood Development was on hand to co-facilitate the reception the past couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afternoon Activities<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campuses host afternoon activities that engage the students. The Fredericton campus offers a range of presentations and sessions spanning a couple of hours. Participating students sign up for these and attend two or three of them depending upon the timing and lengths. Most of the volunteers are faculty members from different fields including earth sciences, physics, mathematics, business and chemistry. Departments ranging from Classics to English have been involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feedback from the students is overwhelmingly favourable as they enjoy seeing people share some of their passion around teaching and demonstrating ideas from respective areas. Many of the local students would have been on the campus before for some sort of community activity. However, many students are setting foot on a university campus for the first time. The whole experience of the day is enriching from writing a contest in one building to going to a lecture in another and then a lab somewhere else after eating lunch in a large dining hall, and so on. It is a big deal for many to have found themselves in a class on campus. Likewise, it is valuable for the faculty members to interact with young students who enjoy mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards Ceremony<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day closes with a ceremony acknowledging contributions and sponsors of the event including the CMS and AARMS. The coordination of the results across the five locations is required in advance to provide provincial winners with recognition at the sites they have written. In addition, awards are offered on a local basis for those who write at a particular campus. These extend to school districts. For example, the top student from a particular school district at the Fredericton location would receive a prize. For perspective, the province has only seven such districts and they would not all be represented at a site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Contest Papers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of New Brunswick and l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Moncton share the responsibility of putting the papers together each year. One of the universities on a rotational basis (every year or couple of years) will take the lead in compiling the papers with the other offering feedback. The final paper is then translated and reviewed. My role has varied considerably from being a contributor of a few problems some years to being the lead (co-)writer of the draft contest or at times such as this year not even seeing the problems until the teachers’ reception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copies of the contest papers in English and French as far back as 1990 appear at the following site: https:\/\/www.umoncton.ca\/umcm-sciences-mathstat\/node\/27<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing Comments on Outreach and Related Activities<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathematical outreach is a valuable part of our societal contribution as mathematicians. Too frequently this is hidden from the public beneath that ivory tower cloak or something that mystifies the public. The perception that “You are off now until September” can be offset by heightening awareness of mathematics in our communities. Many of the teachers present on campus thanked faculty for organizing the event. Efforts are appreciated. On that note, Caroline Purdy, Justine Gauthier, Mahin Salmani, and Guohua Yan are among the many people in Fredericton who made the recent day a success. Cindy Thomas had previously done so much of the groundwork prior to the Covid pause and a subsequent shift within the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Faculty of Science at University of New Brunswick has recently recognized outreach more formally with a newly created Outreach Coordinator position. Justine Gauthier will be in this role that encompasses the NB Mathematics Competition among many other endeavours. This link includes more information and details including some past competitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.unb.ca\/saintjohn\/sase\/dept\/math\/math-competition.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of bringing students and teachers to campuses represents a valuable offering. In terms of mathematics across a province, I would be remiss to not mention the longstanding efforts in British Columbia where many college and university campuses host the BC Junior and Senior contests are held at numerous locations with multiple choice and long answer components each worth 50 out of the 100 possible points. As a faculty member at then named Okanagan University College in the 1990’s and subsequently as an adjunct at Thompson Rivers University, I had the opportunity to participate in both Kelowna and Kamloops. For years I was involved in the writing of the contest questions. Unlike the NB setup, there is a preliminary multiple choice contest written about a month prior in schools to select students who will go to the regional sites. More details (including past papers) on the BC Secondary School Mathematics Contest can be found here: https:\/\/mathcontest.trubox.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education Notes<\/em> offers a forum for sharing outreach initiatives or other related ideas of interest to the mathematical community. Readers are encouraged to submit written contributions or simply send along a note. The editors would be pleased to discuss possibilities for publication. Any questions or requests for further information concerning the content of this article are welcomed via email (johngm@unb.ca).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"template":"","section":[56],"keyword":[],"class_list":["post-17620","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","section-education-notes"],"toolset-meta":{"author-4-info":{"author-4-surname":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-4-given-names":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-4-honorific":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-4-institution":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-4-email":{"type":"email","raw":""},"author-4-cms-role":{"type":"textfield","raw":""}},"author-3-info":{"author-3-surname":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-3-given-names":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-3-honorific":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-3-institution":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-3-email":{"type":"email","raw":""},"author-3-cms-role":{"type":"textfield","raw":""}},"author-2-info":{"author-2-surname":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-2-given-names":{"type":"textfield","raw":"swatson"},"author-2-honorific":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-2-institution":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-2-email":{"type":"email","raw":""},"author-2-cms-role":{"type":"textfield","raw":""}},"author-info":{"author-surname":{"type":"textfield","raw":"McLoughlin"},"author-given-names":{"type":"textfield","raw":"John Grant"},"author-honorific":{"type":"textfield","raw":""},"author-email":{"type":"email","raw":"johngm@unb.ca"},"author-institution":{"type":"textfield","raw":"University of New Brunswick"},"author-cms-role":{"type":"textfield","raw":""}},"unknown":{"downloadable-pdf":{"type":"file","raw":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/5-New-Brunswick-Mathematics-Competition-\u2013-CMS-Notes.pdf","attachment_id":17694},"article-toc-weight":{"type":"numeric","raw":"3"},"author-surname":{"type":"textfield","raw":"McLoughlin"},"author-given-names":{"type":"textfield","raw":"John Grant"}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/17620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/17620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17689,"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/17620\/revisions\/17689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/notes.math.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=17620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}