Fairfield Math Club
Monthly Newsletter
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Greetings!
A very Happy New Year to al!l
FAIRFIELD MATH CLUB DONATES $1,200 TO
OPERATION HOPE
 On
December 24, 2008 Aakash Bhattacharya and Arvind Kalra handed over a donation
of $1,200 to Kristina Foye, Director of Operations at Operation Hope, Fairfield,
CT
Aakash, a high school junior and Arvind, a high school freshman coach students for math
contests to raise funds for Operation hope. The club activities are supervised
by their parents Mousumi Bhattacharya and Sanjeev Kalra.
The mission
of their club, Fairfield Math
Club, is to provide service to the community by increasing awareness and
preparedness of students in Fairfield
County for nationally
acclaimed math contests. At the same time, they want to help homeless people in
need of shelter and food from donations generated through these activities.
Read the news on Operation hope website here. This news was also published in Fairfield Minuteman, Fairfield Citizen, India New England, Lokvani, and CTIndiaLife.
During 2008 Fairfield math Club offered the following math contest preparation classes:
- MathCounts for grades 6-8 in winter-spring 2008 (10 classes)
- AMC 8 for grades 6-8 in fall 2008 (10 classes)
- MathLeague for grades 3-5 in fall 2008 (10 classes)
- AMC 10 Intensive practice session for high school in Nov-Dec 2008
In addition they offered the following math skill building classes
- Challenge Math by Ed Zaccaro for grades 3-8 in summer 2008 (10 classes)
- Introduction to Number Theory for grades 608 in fall 2008 (17 classes)
- Introduction to Counting & Probability for grades 608 in fall 2008 (15 classes)
The club also hosted the 24th Annual American Mathematics
Competitions (AMC) 8 in November, 2008. Their team of top three students - Arjun Jain of Roger
Ludlowe Middle
School, Fairfield, CT, Mrinal Kumar
of Colytown Middle
School, Westport, CT, and Devisaisrika
Boorgu of Westshore Middle School, Milford,
CT - received the Certificate of Merit for a
team score of 50 or better, which is in the top 5% of all 2,288 participating
schools in the U.S.
Their average score, 12.9, of the whole team of 15 students was higher than the
national average of 10.83, with club members in each grade scoring higher than
the corresponding grade-level national average.
Arjun
Jain and Mrinal Kumar scored the 4th highest in Connecticut among 2,241 participating
students. They won the distinguished honor roll for scoring in the top 1% of
all 148, 554 participants in the U.S. Gazal
Gulati and Sagar Gulati of
Fairfield Warde Middle School, Fairfield, CT won the Certificate of Achievement
for students in grade 6 or below scoring 12 or above, thereby falling in top 15%
of all participants in the U.S.
See the 2008 general statistics here and the state statistics here
Aakash
scored highest in Connecticut in 2008 AMC 12B
contest of the Mathematical Association of America and Arvind scored third
highest in Connecticut
in 2008 AMC 8 contest of the Mathematical Association of America. Aakash raised
$500 in 2007 and $200 in 2006 for Operation Hope through fundraising activities
among Fairfield Math Club members. In 2008 he was joined by Arvind Kalra in his
efforts. Sagar Kaushik, a sophomore at Weston High School,
Weston, CT, Sonny Caplash, a sophomore at Masuk High School, Monroe,
CT, and Isha Kaushik, a freshman at Weston High School,
Weston, CT joined as teachers. In
addition, Anurag Kalra, grade 7 at Tomlinson
Middle School, Fairfield,
CT, and Arjun Jain, grade 8 at Roger Ludlowe
Middle School, Fairfield, CT
taught grades 3-5. With more teachers, Fairfield Math club was able to offer
more classes in 2008 and the number of students more than doubled in 2008.
A Tradition of Excellence
In 2007, Fairfield Math Club (under Fairfield University) secured the School Merit Roll which includes schools with team scores (sum of the top three student scores) of 50-65 (top 2%-5% ).
See page 29 of the summary results here.
On page 45 you'll find Arvind Kalra (score 23) listed as distinguished honor roll student (scoring >= 21 in top 1% of scores).
On page 73 you'll find the following members listed as honor roll students (scores 17-20 in the top 2-5% of scores): Anurag Chinnepalli (score 20), Arjun Jain (score 18), Neil Gade (score 17), S. Akole (score 17), William Connors (score 17).
UPCOMING CONTESTS
Saturday Feb 7, 2:30-3:30 pm
Fourth MOEMS contest - grades 3-8
Only those registered for MOEMS contest should come
Saturday March 7, 2:30-3:30 pm
Fifth and final MOEMS contest - grades 3-8
Only those registered for MOEMS contest should come
All contests are at Rotary Room, Fairfield Main Library, 1080 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT 06825. Remember to bring enough pencils, erasers, rulers. Calculators are not allowed.
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| The Year 2008 |
Pictures from Award ceremony on Jan 3, 2009
 MathLeague grade 3-5 winners (front from left) Sohan Choudhury, Neha Srivastava, Harika Reddy, Isha Dalal, Anoushka Chatterjee
AMC 8 grades 6-8 Club winners (front from left) Kavaya Boorgu, Gazal Gulati, mrinal Kumar.
Pictures from class
 Teachers having a laugh in high school practice session (from left) Sonney Caplash, Isha Kaushik, Arvind Kalra, sagar Kaushik, (standing) Aakash Bhattacharya
Class in progress......
You can find our past newsletters here
December 2008Nov-Dec 2008Oct-Nov 2008September 2008August 2008 - UpdateAugust 2008June 2008April-May 2008March 2008February 2008January 2008December 2007October 2007
For more information on Fairfield Math club see our blog here
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| Summer 2009 Plans? |
Where would you be in Summer 2009? how about doing some challenging math?
by Mousumi Bhattacharya |
By now most of you have taken the Talent search exam for Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (JHU-CTY). If not do so ASAP.
Here's what we recommend for summer residential camps
From JHU-CTY
Grades 2-6
Indiviually paced math courses
Math Problem Solving
Grades 7 and above
Indiviually paced math courses Number Theory Similar summer residential classes are available at NorthWestern University Center for Talent Development (CTD)CTY and CTD also offers online courses in math and science. Contact us if you need info on those. A more economic option is to take math and science courses from Thinkwellonline. They are automated, do not have instructors but do have online lectures, practice problems, chapter tests. Grade 5-6 students should start with pre-algebra, others depending on where they are in school. We strongly recommend grade 7-8 to take Beginning/Intermediate/College Algebra. They should take Geometry from ALEKS (Thinkwell does not have Geometry). Grades 9-11 should take Precalculus and Trigonometry from Thinkwell. Students, who are more ambitious in math and wants to excel in contest problem solving through Math Olympiad, should take Art of Problem Solving online classes. These classes are once a week online chat-based, accompanied by an online forum for practice problems. They are hard and need self-motivation dedication, many contest winners take them more than once. We recommend at the following: Grades 6-9Introduction to Number Theory Introduction to Counting and Probability Introduction to Algebra Introduction to Geometry MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Basics Advanced MATHCOUNTS/AMC 8 Grades 9-11Intermediate Algebra Intermediate Counting & Probability Intermediate Number Theory AMC 10 Problem Series AMC 12 problem Series Another exciting choice for ambitious students in grades 7-9 is the residential summer camp Awesome Math. REMEMBER SUMMER IS THE BEST TIME TO ENHANCE YOUR SKILLS AND LEARN NEW THINGS.....SO DO SOME MATH OTHER THAN ENJOYING THE SUN...... |
From the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
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The Forgotten Middle
Compiled by Aakash Bhattacharya
Latest research from ACT shows that the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school.
ACT defines readiness for college as acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing first-year courses at a post-secondary institution. Simply stated readiness for college means not needing to take remedial courses at college.
However the most recent results for the 2008 ACT-tested high school graduating class are alarming: only one in five 2008 ACT-tested high school graduates are prepared for entry-level college courses in English Composition, College Algebra, Social Science, and Biology, while one in four are not prepared for college-level course work in n any of the four areas.
This report suggests that there is a critical defining point for students in the college and career readiness process - the eighth grade. It is so important that if students are not on target by eighth grade, the impact may be nearly irreversible in high school. Students who leave the eighth grade without the essential skills they need to be on target for college and career readiness too often leave high school not ready for any kind of meaningful future.......
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Read the full report here. |
Looking Ahead
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Winter Practice Schedule
Contests for Grades 3-8
MOEMS contest on Saturdays 2:30-3:30 pm for grades 3-8
Nov 15, Dec 16 (Tuesday 7-8 pm), Jan 17, Feb 7, March 7 (5 contests)
Registration fee $30 for all five contests, more information at www.moems.org
Required book for MOEMS practice grades 3-8
Math Olympiad Contest
Problems for Elementary and Middle Schools, by Dr. George Lenchner, ISBN: 978-0-9626662-1-6.
Buy the book at Art of Problem
Solving (www.artofproblemsolving.com)
Winter MOEMS Practice Dates All classes and contests for grades 3-8 are on Saturdays (Except Dec 2, and Dec 16) at Fairfield Main Library, 1080 Old Post Road, Fairfield, CT 06825. Session fee $40 for Dec 2-Feb 28 for all grades.
Dec 2, Tuesday 7-8;30 pm Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room,
Dec 16, Tuesday 7-8 pm. Fairfield Main Library, Rotary room, Second MOEMS contest, only those registered for contest should come
Dec 20, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
Jan 3, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room, Award ceremony before class at 2 pm
Jan 10, Fairfield Main Library, Memorial Room
Jan 17, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary room, Third MOEMS contest, only those registered for contest should come
Jan 24, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
Jan 31, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
Feb 7, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary room, Fourth MOEMS contest, only those registered for contest should come
Feb 14, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
Feb 21, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
Feb 28 Last class, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary Room
March 7, Fairfield Main Library, Rotary room, Fifth and final MOEMS contest, only those registered for contest should come
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Aakash & Mousumi Bhattacharya
E-mail: mbhattac@yahoo.com
Web: http://gifted.wordpress.com/fairfield-math-club
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