By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times
PRINCETON —
What do you get if you take a handful of talented math students and add an assignment to make a movie? An entry in the Reel Math Challenge, of course.
That’s the solution that some Princeton Middle School students in Brenda Harshbarger’s unique math class reached, and they decided to put their calculation skills on display for the nation.
“We’re all part of the MathCounts competition, and the Reel Math Challenge is a new part of that,” Princeton Middle’s Myah Sheets explained this week. “You make a movie showing your team doing one of their problems.”
Myah and her team, which included Cydney Meadows, Merrin Ren and Ary’an Graham, selected a math problem titled Burrito De Lite.
“It’s about a girl. She went to restaurant, and we had to determine how much the tax was and how much she left for a tip,” Sheets said.
In their video, however, the girls built a humorous story about the experience, which featured a waitress without silverware, a restaurant that offered torn complimentary newspapers and a side order of butter for disgruntled customers.
“We made two versions. The short one is the one we posted to the Reel Math site, and the longer, funnier one is on YouTube.com,” Sheets said.
According to the Reel Math Challenge website, www.reelmath.org, the unique contest is designed to help students solve “the problem using a real-world application of the math concept on which the selected problem is based.”
Along the way, Sheets said her team — which includes all four girls enrolled in Harshbarger’s math competition class — also learned a lot about the technology behind movie making and more.
“We used Windows Moviemaker for the video, and we did a PowerPoint presentation when we worked the problem,” she said.
The teacher behind the innovative class that puts students’ real-world math skills to the test in competition was busy teaching this week. She said there were two other Princeton Middle School teams who took part in the Reel Math Challenge.
Matrix produced “The Vexing Vectors.” A third group was working Thursday on “The Parmacy Problem.”
Scholarships and a potential trip to Orlando, Fla., are on the line in the contest.
Videos, and their teams, progress through the process by accumulating “likes” on the Reel Math site, reelmath.org, through Feb. 1. Once the votes are tallied, the 20 teams with the most likes will advance to the next round.
From there, Reel Math representatives will determine the four finalist videos.
Each of the four finalist team members, along with one adult chaperone, will receive an all-expense-paid trip to the 2012 MathCounts National Competition, where they will present their videos.
Each member of the single team declared the Reel Math Challenge winner will then receive a $1,000 scholarship to further educational opportunities.
To support Sheets and her teammates, visit the Reel Math website and search for “Burrito De Lite.” An advanced search option will also allow visitors to search for all Princeton Middle School entries.
For more information, visit www.reelmath.org.
Once the Reel Math Challenge is complete, Sheets said she and fellow Princeton Middle math students will turn their focus to the traditional MathCounts competition on a county level.
“It’s regular math, and you work out the math problems in teams of four,” she said.
That contest is slated for Bluefield State College.
— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.
