Who’s up for a contest? Mathematics competitions or mathematical olympiads are competitive events where participants complete a math test. Help to prepare for these events by doing a short practice contest.

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #61: Math Contest
2. Find the contest choices here
3. You MAY use a calculator, but please work by yourself!
4. Pick the grade level that fits you
5. Do all of the work on your recording page and click “I am done” at the bottom. It will score your contest for you.
6. Take a screenshot of your contest and share it along with your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the math contest master badge for more contest practice

Coordinate Geometry is one of my favorite areas of math.  There’s just something about getting a sheet of ordered pairs and carefully plotting them on graph paper…connecting the dots to reveal a picture.  If that’s your sort of thing too, check out Option 3 below.  Happy plotting!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page:#55: Coordinate Geometry

2. Learn the basics of coordinate geometry by watching this video.  Take picture notes on your recording sheet. 

3. Read about the inventor of coordinate plane geometry, Rene Descartes.

4. This video gives a musical explanation of his accomplishments.  Put together a note page about him.

5. Print out (or have your teacher print out) this project. Plot the ordered pairs on the graph paper and reveal a spooky surprise!  Take a picture of your completed drawing and send it to the EY Coordinator at your building.

6. Create your own coordinate plane art. Plot the points and connect them with the colored lines. Take a picture after you have practiced for at least 10 minutes.

7. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

My family enjoys playing pitch,  31, sevens and trash.  However, my absolute FAVORITE game is cribbage!  It involves strategy and math, which is why I like it so much!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #53: Cribbage
2. Read about cribbage and record some details.
3. What is one “thing to remember” when playing cribbage.
4. Record this information. In cribbage, the Jokers are removed from the deck. The Ace is worth 1. The face cards (Jack, Queen, and King) are each worth 10. The other cards (2 through 9) are each worth their number value
5. Here are some of the ways you can earn points when playing cribbage.

One of the ways to earn points in cribbage is to have cards that add up to fifteen.  In the picture below, the King and one of the 5’s make 15 so that is 2 points.  The King and the other 5 also make 15, which is another 2 points.  You might notice that there is a 5 that is face up on the deck.  This can also be paired with the King for 15 for another 2 points.  Finally, the three 5’s (2 in the hand and one on the deck) add up to 15.  This is an additional 2 points.When you have a pair of the same card, you earn 2 points.  The pair could be in your hand, or one of your cards could be paired with the card that is face up on the deck.  If you have 3-of-a-kind, that is worth 6 points.  In the picture above, there are two 5’s in the hand and one 5 face up on the deck.  Not only does that make 15, but it is also 3-of-a-kind which earns you 6 points.

A “flush” is when you have 4 or more of the same suit (clubs, spades, hearts, or diamonds).  If you had 4 hearts in your hand, you would earn 4 points.  If the card that is face up on the deck is also a heart, you would get 5 points.  The hand below shows 5 clubs so you would get 5 points.

A “run of 3” is when you have 3 cards in numerical order.  You could also have a run of 4 or 5 cards.  Let’s say you had a 3, 4, 5, and 6 in your hand.  You would have a “run of 4” which is 4 points.  If the card on the deck was a 2 or 7, you would have a run of 5.  The hand below shows a run of 5.

6. The pictures below show several cribbage hands.  See if you can add up the points correctly!  Record the “hand #” and an explanation of the total points.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

7. What are other ways you can earn points in a cribbage game?  Do a little research and to find some.

        8. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the Cribbage Master Badge from the EY website.

Yep! That job requires math! Math is so much more than a bunch of problems on a worksheet or even a series of problems on a website or app.  Begin to imagine the creative ways in which mathematics plays a role in a variety of careers!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #49: Cool Jobs that Involve Math
2. Read Cool Jobs: Math as entertainment from Science News for Students.    Pick out one of the jobs mentioned in the article and write about how math is involved in this career.
3. Read about high school seniors who are getting a head start on their math careers at Society for Science.  Summarize 4 of the projects that were awarded money prizes at the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024.
4. How about being a magician for a career? Arthur Benjamin has a super cool TED Talk.

5. Magician Arthur Benjamin mentions that his favorite number is 2,520 because it is the smallest, yes I said smallest, number divisible by all the numbers 1 through 10.  Prove this by doing the math on your recording sheet.

6.  Robotics might be an area of interest for you. Read this article about a few robotics career options. Make a note taking page about these options.

7. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01101001 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100001 01110010 01101011 01110011

No, I didn’t just type a bunch of random 0’s and 1’s above.  I actually typed a sentence into a binary translator site and had it converted to binary.  Our number system (Base 10), uses 10 digits…0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.  In the binary number system (Base 2), there are only 2 digits…0s and 1s.  It’s a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it can actually be quite fun!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #43: Exploring Binary Numbers
2. Watch this Binary Number System vide to get started. Take notes along with the teacher. Pause the video as needed.

3. Use the Binary Translator site to figure out what all those 1s and 0s at the top of this post mean.  record the answer on your recording sheet.

4. Then come up with your own sentence to translate to 1s and 0s and put it on your recording sheet.

5. Watch this video where Instagram’s Kevin Systrom explains how binary numbers play into pixels and images.  There’s a LOT of information in this video and it goes fast.  Feel free pause it, re-watch it, etc.

6. There are 10 types of people in this world…those who understand binary and those who don’t. Hopefully after completing this math mini spark you’ll “get” the joke!  🙂

Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Learn how to make a really fun geometric toy—a Hexaflexagon! There are many types of flexagons. The names of flexagons tell the type of polygon and the number of faces.  Hexaflexagons are paper polygons you will create in this math mini spark. They were first discovered in 1939 by Arthur Stone, who set up a Flexagon Committee to investigate their properties.

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #39: Hexaflexagon DIY
2. Watch this Vi Hart video.

3. Look over these PDFs that will help you make your own.  Print off the instruction page and the the template.

4. Snap a picture of your finished project and add it to your recording page.

5. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Info from: http://www.auntannie.com/Geometric/HexaHexaFlexagon/