Math marathon figures to be challenging

During the past six months, students, parents and teachers sent approximately 5,000 letters from all communities of Maine to members of the Maine Legislature to support funding of the Maine Mathematics, Science and Engineering Talent Search (MMSETS) Program. Students as young as fifth grade from Bucksport to Frenchville contacted their representatives.

A 77-year-old retired architect raising his orphaned grandchildren wrote his representative, his senator and even Gov. Angus King. There was a father of 12 children from Orono and a mother of four from Beals whose two daughters discovered their ability in mathematics through the MMSETS program. These diverse Mainers were all united by the love of challenging problem solving and e-mailed, faxed, wrote or called their representatives to make sure the program’s funding would continue.

Unfortunately, we were not able to get our desired funding from the Legislature at this time. Even so, we wish to thank the supporters of this program: the hundreds of teachers and parents across Maine for their help of popularizing this activity, and the thousands of students who have participated in MMSETS; to our colleagues at the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance and at the University of Maine System.

In particular, appreciation is expressed to Chancellor Terrence MacTaggart of the University of Maine System, and to Francis Eberle, executive director of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, for their encouragement and support. Appreciation also goes to Sens. Mary Cathcart and Marjorie Kilkelly, and to my colleagues Ali Ozluk, Jerry Farlow and Zhu-qi Lu. Without their help, our dream could not have been realized.

Launched as a volunteer initiative in 1997, the MMSETS program had 350 participants at the start; today it has 1,700 students. The purpose of MMSETS is to encourage problem solving as an intellectual habit. While most other problem-solving competitions have stringent time limits, MMSETS allows for more reflection on the part of participants.

Each problem set of 10 problems takes a month. Students can consult with each other, go to reference sources and experiment with a variety of possible avenues before submitting their solutions. The best, most innovative solutions, to the previous month’s problems are included with the second next problem sets. MMSETS fosters insight, ingenuity and creativity, and also the virtue of perseverance, which is an equally essential ingredient in successful scientific endeavor.

The program has received nationwide recognition from scholars working on the field of Mathematics Talent Search Programs, such as George Berzsenyi, the North American representative of World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions, and member of the International Mathematical Olympic Committee; Arnold E. Ross, from Ohio State University, the founder for the Young Ross Scholar Programs. George Markowsky, the chair of Mathematics and Statistics and Computer Science departments at the University of Maine, gives “wholehearted support to the MMSETS Program. This program,” says Markowsky, “is long overdue in Maine.”

David Bradley, a professor at the University of Maine, says: “Dr. Eva Szillery’s MMSETS is probably the most important educational initiative undertaken in New England since it’s inception in 1997.” Cristina Domnisoru, a participant in MMSETS, a sophomore at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics says, “I believe the talent search is the best approach to learn math.”

How do we know that MMSETS fosters high standards? First, the growth from 350 to 1,700 participants in the program and the five thousand supporting letters reflect interest and trust in the program. Second, historic evidence supports our claims. MMSETS, together with two other programs in the United States, was modeled after the Hungarian High School Mathematics problem-solving program, which started in 1894 and is still going strong. As a result of more than 100 years of facilitating a “problem-solving culture,” Hungary’s per capita output of excellent scholars in science and engineering is the largest in the world. In the United States alone there are thousands of mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, and architects of Hungarian origin who all grew up solving the problems of the Hungarian program corresponding to MMSETS. The 107 years of continuous operation of the Hungarian program provide sound proof of its impact upon the minds of young people.

Achieving high standards is not limited to any race, nationality, religion, or gender, nor is necessarily inherited. It must, however, be carefully developed. The aim of MMSETS is to enable students in Maine to reach their potentials in natural and joyful ways.

Our MMSETS Program supports the goals of the Maine Learning Results. (See at: http://www.state.me.us/education/lres/math.htm.) For example, on page 4 the Learning Results states the goal “to create, solve and justify the solution for multi-step, real-life problems.” The MMSETS problems do just this.

In September we post our “Fishy numbers” problem: For many years now Cousin Fred has gone to a lake every day for fishing. Starting on Aug. 1, 2001, he says to his neighbor: “Today I caught more fish than two days ago, but fewer than a week ago.” For how many days can Fred say this?

Another of our problems involved the task of building a number of possible toy train-track circuits using at most eight identical straight tracks and 12 identical curved tracks (each being one-twelfth of a circle). The simplest such structure is just a circle. How many additional figures can we create and still close the loop of the track? How many straight pieces might we use? How few?

Once we have considered a number of possible configurations, the problem helps to understand the underlying relations among all of them. The whole task brings the solver to a mathematically satisfying and inclusive closure. The real-life problems stretch the imagination and equip MMSETS problem solvers with appropriate techniques and reasoning applicable in other contexts.

Participation in the MMSETS program is free. As the program grows, support will be needed to pay faculty members leading the program, to create and grade new problems, and to support travel to schools and youth programs. Funding will be needed for the overall improvement of the program. At present, our funding initiatives include private corporations, private agencies both from the state of Maine and nationwide. We have been successful with MMSETS because the students work with us and benefit from it. Our state needs more engineers and scientists now, and the need will grow in the future. More importantly, all occupations will require excellent problem solving skills.

If you are interested in receiving our MMSETS Newsletter, contact us at mmsets@maine.edu or eva.szillery@maine.edu. Everyone is invited to take part in the program as problem solver, grader or creator of new problems.

Eva J. Szillery Ph.D. is the founder and director of the Maine Mathematics, Science and Engineering Talent Search Program.