For Immediate Release

 

Contact:         Susan Allen
                        News and Media Relations
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Susan.Allen@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4790
                        www.stockton.edu/media

Galloway, N.J. – Over 120 students from 11 area high schools will solve their way through a math competition during the sixth annual Mathematical Mayhem event, the largest one to date, on Saturday,April 1 at Stockton University.

The competition brings high school students to Stockton’s campus to compete in individual and team exams that are designed to challenge the students and assess their current skill development. The competition is sponsored by the Math program in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and students in the Math Club and Pi Mu Epsilon New Jersey Omicron chapter.

About 22 percent of all the math and science majors in New Jersey’s senior public colleges and universities earn their degree at Stockton. Mathematical Mayhem exposes local high school students with an interest in math and science to a university setting. A number of the teachers who bring their students to the competition are Stockton graduates. 

The experience “is meant to reduce test anxiety, increase student confidence and provide high school students with an inside view of college life,” said Chia-Lin Wu, professor of Mathematics and founder of the competition. The students will be exposed to the challenges of math and will see where they stand among their peers, he added.

Participating high schools can send teams of three students to compete. Forty-one teams will be comprised of 123 competitors. The schools registered to participate are Absegami High School, Atlantic City High School, Atlantic County Institute of Technology, Cedar Creek High School, Cumberland Regional High School, Egg Harbor Township High School, Mainland Regional High School, Middletown High School North, Ocean City High School, Oakcrest High School and Southern Regional High School.

The daylong event includes registration  (8:30-9 a.m.), a welcome ceremony (9-9:10 a.m.), an individual challenge (9:15-10:30 a.m.), a team challenge (10:45-12:15 p.m.), lunch in the N-Wing Student Restaurant, a tour of the campus and a Stockton Math Club presentation (12:20-2 p.m.) and a closing awards ceremony (2-3 p.m.). The welcome, individual challenge and awards ceremony will be held in the Alton Auditorium, on the second floor of A-Wing. The team challenge will be held in the Alton Auditorium and lower B-Wing.

“The number of students and teachers who come out on a Saturday shows their love and passion for math,” said Wu.

The exams were created and will be graded by Stockton Math faculty. Members of the Stockton Math Club will proctor the exams.