Math Students Make History During Mathematical Association of America Conference
Math Students Make History During Mathematical Association of America Conference
Students in the Department of Mathematical Sciences made history at the Mathematical Association of America’s 93rd Annual Southeastern Section spring 2014 meeting at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn. where they competed in “Math Jeopardy,” a competition modeled after the long-running North American television program. During the competition, Georgia Southern became the first college ever to have two teams from the same University to achieve placement in the semi-final round, and brought home a third place win in the finals against 25 other universities during the 3-day conference.
“Our Jeopardy team members have worked very hard the past few months, especially in the weeks leading up to the competition,” said Chasen Smith, instructor and advisor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
During the three-round competition (preliminary, semi-final and final), teams of up to four undergraduate students compete in the
preliminary round; the top 12 teams with the highest score from the preliminary
round move on to the semi-finals, and the top four teams from the semi-finals move
forward to compete in the finals. In each round, the teams are allowed two
minutes to respond to the answers (which are all math related) in the form of a
question.
“We have met every week since December practicing Jeopardy questions from
previous years so that we would be prepared. I couldn't be more proud of our
students! They represented Georgia Southern University, the College of Science
and Mathematics and the Department of Mathematical Sciences very well, and set
the bar high for next year's meeting at UNC Wilmington,” said Smith.
Students on team one included Michael Ackerman, Matt Cullens, Micah Jackson and Katelyn Yeomans. Team two included Nicholas Anderson, Brittney Benzio, Garry Brown and Stephanie Hesse.
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