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Mee Seong Im
Email Address: mim2 (at) math
(dot) uiuc (dot) edu
Mailing Address: 250
Altgeld Hall, 1409 West Green Street,
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Address: B1 Coble Hall, 801 South Wright Street,
Champaign, IL 61820 Location
(Pictured: Payton senior Kevin Shapiro -- the equation Sharpied onto his head is e to the power
of (17 i p) + 1 = 0 which I'm told unites all six
fundamental concepts of
mathematics.) At the opening ceremony in U. of I.'s 1,750-seat Foellinger Auditorium (photo below right),
retired New Trier math teacher Richard Rhoad led the assembly in his composition, The Illinois Council
of Teachers of Mathematics' "State Math
Contest Song " a nerdy yet charming number that extols the event's
"stimulation for students, ideas for teachers." When third place went to Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, we all
knew it was down to two. Naperville North team members seated near us
joined hands, bowed their heads and jangled their knees nervously. "In second place, with 907 points," said the announcer after
the applause for Stevenson abated, "Naperville North."
(listen to the announcement here) A joyous shout went up from the IMSA corner. They'd won by 24
points. The Naperville North kids, their long reign as No. 1 over, slumped
in their seats. But it was a phenomenal streak against extremely tough
competition, and they ought to be very proud. Naperville and Aurora should have a parade for these teams. Now that would be something to see. 2008 results (thanks to Jason Elliot Benda for filling out my
tables) Division 4AA Place/Points/Team (photos by Eric Zorn)
The Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(ICTM)
April 26, 2008 High School State Math Competition
Photos from the event at UIUC
ICTM State Finals
The article below is from
Chicago
Tribune.
Final seconds
tell the tale for mathletes
CHAMPAIGN (April 29, 2008) - The actual moment of truth Saturday lasted 8 seconds, but the
suspense had been building for about an hour:
Would Naperville North High School's unprecedented 10-year reign as
Illinois State Math Contest champions continue?
The Huskies had won by 44 points last year, 997-953, over the Illinois
Math and Science Academy in Aurora to take their 13th state title in the
last 14 years.
You hadn't heard about the North dynasty? No surprise. Interscholastic
math competition doesn't get much coverage (what you're reading is the
first mention of the state championship meet in the Tribune since 2002,)
even though we're all supposed to care much more about how good our
schools are in math than they are in, say, volleyball.
One reason for this is that most of us can understand and even relate to
what goes on in a good volleyball match. But very few of us can understand
or even relate to the problems that math competitors tackle at the
high-school level.
Another is that math meets aren't spectator sports. Our son Alex just
finished his fourth and last year competing for Chicago's Walter Payton
College Prep, and every time we offered to come cheer him on, he told us
not to bother, there was absolutely nothing to see -- just kids taking
really hard tests.
That wasn't quite true, as I learned over the weekend when I helped chaperon the 33-member Payton team
at Champaign-Urbana. Though no one except judges and proctors watch the actual competition, the
atmospherics are wonderful -- our team put on skits, experimentally microwaved household objects
and carved a festive Mohawk into a graduating senior's scalp in the motel the night before the meet.
The next morning, then, they set up camp on the University of Illinois' main quad, where members of
some of the more than 200 other teams in four class divisions (like basketball!) were warming up
over calculators and problem sets (left) or throwing Frisbees around to ease the tension.
A dozen individual and small-team events for different grade levels took place over the next four hours
in different classrooms on campus. And though somewhere, someone was keeping track of the team totals
as the results came in, most of the mathletes and coaches could only guess at how they were
doing.
But Naperville North had done well too.
The final-four countdown was dramatic. Fourth place went to Payton -- tied
for the best finish ever by a Chicago public school with the 1988 Kenwood
Academy math team, for which current Payton co-coach P.J. Karafiol
(pictured, coaching) competed.
-----
1. 931 – Illinois Math/Science
Academy (Aurora)
2. 907 – Naperville North High School
3. 899 – Adlai E. Stevenson High School (Lincolnshire)
4. 833 – Walter Payton College Prep(Chicago)
5. 799
– Naperville Central High School
6. 785 – New
Trier High School (Winnetka)
7. 742 – Evanston Township
High School
8. 731 – Lyons Township (LaGrange)
9.
730 – Glenbrook South High School(Glenview)
10. 727 –
Glenbrook North High School (Northbrook)
11. 664 -- Oak Park
River Forest High School
12. 662 -- Libertyville High School
13. 661 -- Edwardsville Senior High School
14. 656 --
Fremd High School (Palatine)
15. 654 -- Hinsdale Central High
School
16. 642 -- Neuqua Valley High School (Naperville)
17. 621 -- Lincoln-Way East High School (Frankfort)
18.
538 -- Whitney Young Magnet High School (Chicago)
19. 506 --
Hononegah High School (Rockton)
20. 440 -- Plainfield North
High School
DIVISION 3AA
1. 779 – Vernon
Hills High School
2. 709 – University of Illinois Lab School
(Urbana)
3. 689 – Glenbard South High School(Glen
Ellyn)
4. 669 – Fenwick High School(Oak Park)
5. 631 – Benet Academy (Lisle)
6. 588 – Lake
Forest High School
7. 587 – Northside College Prep
(Chicago)
8. 585 – Marist High School(Chicago)
9. 567 – Crete Monee High School
10. 525 – Geneva High
School
11. 518 -- Marion High School
12. 516 --
Hinsdale South High School (Darien)
13. 513 -- Deerfield High
School
14. 483 -- Cary-Grove High School
15. 467 --
Brother Rice High School (Chicago)
16. 465 -- St. Ignatius
College Prep (Chicago)
17. 454 -- Lemont High School
DIVISION 2A
1. 833 – University of Chicago Lab
School (Chicago)
2. 719 – Fairfield High School
3.
709 – Herrin High School
4. 704 – Richmond-Burton High
School
5. 679 – Montini Catholic High
School(Lombard)
6. 650 – St. Francis High School (Wheaton)
7. 629 – Morton High School (Morton, IL)
8. 627 –
Marmion Academy (Aurora)
9. 609 – University High School
(Normal)
10. 605 – Illiana Christian (Lansing)
11. 563 --
Rosary High School (Aurora)
12. 550 -- Mahomet-Seymour High School
13. 546 -- Sparta High School
14. 535 -- Byron High School
15. 533 -- Robinson High School
16. 528 -- Joliet Catholic Academy
17. 517 -- Reed-Custer High School (Braidwood)
18. 516 -- Sacred Heart Griffin High School (Springfield)
19. 457 -- Macomb High School
DIVISION 1A
1. 905 – Cornerstone (Wheaton, Home School)
2. 810
– Johnston City High School
3. 734 – Lake Forest Academy
4. 564 – United High School (Monmouth)
5. 548
– Oblong High School
6. 535 – Northridge Prep
(Niles)
7. 471 – Lexington High School
8. 435 –
Keith Country Day School (Rockford)
9. 383 – Maroa-Forsyth
High School
10. 373 – Beecher High School
11. 370 -- The
High School of Saint Thomas More (Champaign)
12. 306 -- Central
Catholic High School (Bloomington)
13. 256 -- Gibault Catholic
High School (Waterloo)
UIUC
Math Tutoring Services
Educational
Services-Counseling Center
| Department
of Mathematics 273 Altgeld Hall, MC-382 1409 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 USA Telephone: (217) 333-3350 Fax: (217) 333-9576 Email: office@math.uiuc.edu Last Updated: May 2, 2008 |