Math professor gives math-savvy students a place to shine

Competition, determination, practice—for a group of middle school students, the MATHCOUNTS contest is as serious as any little league game. However, before Mathematics professor Dorina Mitrea's math camp, young "mathletes" had no place to practice and no one to teach them new skills during the summer months.

This summer, Mitrea, who coached the 2003 Missouri MATHCOUNTS team to a second-place finish nationally, will build on the success of a three-week pilot summer program she created last year. With classes of 24-25 students and plenty of math games, Mitrea's math camp provides a venue for students interested in doing math even when school isn't in session.

In early March, Mitrea also will host her second high school math competition. With a teenage daughter at home, Mitrea realized that the opportunities for high school students to explore mathematics were limited. In fall 2003, she organized a regional math competition for high school students through the Great Plains Mathematics League. Mitrea recruited teachers at Hickman, Rockbridge, Columbia Independent and Glasgow high schools who were willing to put in the extra hours and prepare their students for the competition. Mitrea is currently encouraging more teachers to get involved.

"I love seeing the process of kids learning," Mitrea said. "It can be intimidating for a 6th grader seeing formula theories for the first time, but it is wonderful to watch as they become more confident and begin to appreciate the beauty of a solution."

Despite her increasing commitments, Mitrea still remains an active mentor in the MATHCOUNTS competition. Since the students from her winning team are now split between West Middle School and Smithton Middle School, she has decided to assist at both schools. Her high school-age daughter is actually now coaching the Smithton team.

"The regular classroom strategies are too slow in a MATHCOUNTS competition," Mitrea said. "The students must be more creative with their solutions and must see the problem from another angle. Most of the problems have a spin and the students are only given a very short time to complete each one."

MATHCOUNTS is a nationwide math competition for sixth through eighth graders. Teachers, volunteers and MATHCOUNTS alumni coach student "mathletes" on algebra, geometry, probability and counting for months before competitions at the school, local, state and national level. MATHCOUNTS.org.

2004

Additional links:

Dorina Mitrea
Department of Mathematics

<< back to news
<< back to archives