{"id":10976,"date":"2024-05-31T09:01:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T14:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=10976"},"modified":"2024-05-31T09:01:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T14:01:19","slug":"uwo-math-contest-draws-teams-of-young-students-eager-to-test-problem-solving-skills","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uwo-math-contest-draws-teams-of-young-students-eager-to-test-problem-solving-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"UWO math contest draws teams of young students eager to test problem-solving skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a day of some serious thinking as more\u00a0than 1,000 middle and high school students from 57 Wisconsin schools competed in the sixth annual UW Oshkosh Mathematical Problem-Solving Contest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The students came from as far as Fountain City, Wisconsin, about 3.5 hours away on the western border of the state, to participate in a day of activities April 30 designed to spark their interest in math and other STEM fields.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsey Johnson, a math teacher at Cochrane-Fountain High School, got up at 3:45 a.m. to meet her students for the 190-mile drive to UW Oshkosh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I look at it, if the students want to do math, then heck, I\u2019ll drive them,\u201d Johnson said, adding that she also threw in doughnuts as an enticement for the early risers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>After checking in, the students, all 7-10th graders, got right to work on the individual competitions. The only sounds heard in the three testing sites \u2013 Culver Family Welcome Center, Reeve Union ballroom and Kolf Sports Center \u2013 were the occasional pencil being sharpened. After a short break and pep talk from their respective teachers or school chaperones, the students went right back for the team competitions, where they worked in groups of up to four.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>After the problem-solving competitions, the students had opportunities to explore a variety of activities \u2013 from creating an arcade game to examining the earth\u2019s surface features and weather patterns through wind-powered cars and two-liter tornadoes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This\u00a0<\/i>Mathematical Problem-Solving Contest 2024<\/span><\/a><\/i><\/strong>\u00a0video is a compilation of Instagram stories and photos from the April 30, 2024, UWO Mathematical Problem Solving Contest. UWO journalism student Aubrie Selsmeyer and public relations student Brett Clavijo contributing:\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=I767E4cbO_Q?feature=oembed]<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lindsey Heinz, who brought 24 students to Oshkosh, wants her students to appreciate their ability to think critically.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope what my students got out of today\u2019s competition is how powerful their thinking is,\u201d said Heinz, who teaches gifted and talented classes at J.R. Gerritts Middle School in Kimberly, WI. \u201cThey are creative thinkers, and the world needs people who think creatively.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kaylee Behnke, an 8th-grader from J.R. Gerritts Middle, doesn\u2019t yet know what profession she\u2019d like to be in, but she said whatever it is, it would involve using her math skills. \u201cI would like to do something that would challenge me, like math does,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d like to do something that uses my skills to help people, make their lives better.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eric Kuennen, a math professor at UW Oshkosh, enjoys watching the students putting their heads together in the team competition. \u201cThey\u2019re standing, talking to each other, they\u2019re arguing,\u201d said Kuennen, who is the mastermind behind the problem-solving event. \u201cThat\u2019s really fun to watch them be so engaged.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Kuennen and his colleagues developed the problems for the contests, which focus less on specific content knowledge and more on problem-solving skills. This way, middle school students can compete along with the high school students.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI see math as solving problems, puzzles, \u201d Kuennen said. \u201cA lot of the mathematics that we do in school can be tedious and not so fun. I understand why people don\u2019t like that, but people do like solving problems and figuring out puzzles.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kuennen hopes the students at the event got a taste for what it feels like to be a college student and a glimpse into the array of STEM fields.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people ask, \u2018What can I do with a math major, I say, \u2018What can\u2019t you do with a math major?\u2019\u201d he said, adding. \u201cMath is all about thinking and problem solving and figuring things out. Those skills are powerful and applicable to a wide range of things.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h3>\n

Study math at UW Oshkosh<\/a><\/p>\n

UWO Mathematical Problem Solving Contest<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Written by Grace Lim<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uwosh.edu\/today\/123417\/uw-oshkoshs-annual-math-contest-draws-teams-of-young-students-eager-to-test-problem-solving-skills\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a day of some serious thinking as more\u00a0than 1,000 middle and high school students from 57 Wisconsin schools competed in the sixth annual UW Oshkosh Mathematical Problem-Solving Contest.\u00a0 The students came from as far as Fountain City, Wisconsin, about 3.5 hours away on the western border of the state, to participate in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[94],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-10976","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-oshkosh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/10976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=10976"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=10976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}