Math Fair: Students Link Mathematics to Everyday Life
By Sean Ely

Sophomore Rhodene "Michi" Mullings stands next to her "Death by Bridge" project that was awarded second place in the algebra II and above division.

The fourth through twelfth grades participated in a mathematics fair Tuesday, May 22, organized by teachers Elizabeth Staats-Burt and Susan Bennett. The gymnasium was filled from wall to wall with colorful presentation boards, fraction pizza slices, miniature homemade snowmobile ramps, wooden bridges, and interested students, judges, faculty, and parents.

"The students had about two months to complete their projects," Mrs. Bennett said. "They could take absolutely anything they wanted and study the math behind it. Some students put a great deal of work into their projects."

The mathematics fair teaches the students more than just numbers and difficult concepts, she noted.

"They learn how to do independent working, how to budget their time, how to do research, how to investigate a little bit about math, even if they don't exactly know how to get to the conclusion at first," she said. "This is important in learning math, but more importantly, seeing it in real life concepts, rather than just from a textbook."

Fifth grader Adrienne Rilenge presents her "Dogs Cost Comparison" project, which earned her an honorable mention at the school's mathematics fair.

Students were interviewed by one of four judges about their project and what they learned from it.

Seventh grader Devon Hunt studied the idea of coin probability. He noted that although there are two sides to every coin, the probability of it landing on either side actually depends on the angle at which it is flipped, as well as the way someone goes about launching it. He especially enjoyed flipping the coins, and he even made a dime turn up tails 20 times in a row.

"These types of projects are better than being in the classroom because it gives you the chance to create something," he said. "It was challenging fitting everything on the board, with all of the different fonts and pages, but it was fun."

He received an honorable mention for his work.

Overall mathematics fair winner Fuller Cowell, a sophomore, crouches by his "Go Big or Go Home" project. His PowerPoint presentation, poster board, research and notes, and remote control snowmobiles impressed the judges, earning him blue ribbon honors.

Sixth grader Lou Clark's study of the ski slopes at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado earned a tie for first place in the sixth and seventh grade division with Collin Armstrong's catapult theory. With some help from his mother, he studied the angles of the hills and mountains that comprise the resort. The study of angles and slopes was made more interesting because his family loves to ski, and his introduction to geometry will be helpful when he takes the class in the future.

"It was frustrating in the very beginning," Mr. Clark said. "We did the entire first part and realized it was completely wrong. We had to start from the beginning. But it turned out OK. My favorite part was looking at it when it was finished."

Leo Horn studied the Pythagorean Theorem. It sounds daunting, but he broke the fundamental geometric theorem down to its simple equation and informed his listeners that it is easy and can even help in the measurements of a house. It was monotonous cutting out all of the pieces of paper for the display board, he said, but he enjoyed it because it got him out of the classroom and he had fun learning. His work earned an honorable mention.

Sixth grader Onaca Bennett shows off her sixth and seventh grade division second place award for "Transformations in Computer Animations."

"It's better than just sitting around and reading information," he said of the exercise.

Second place in the sixth and seventh grade went to Onaca Bennett, a sixth grade student who illustrated the different geometric transformations used to make animations on her brightly colored poster and moving stick figures on her laptop computer. She loves cartoons, so she studied reflection, rotation, translation, size changes, and scale changes in the world of cartoons.

"A lot of the math was new to me," she said, "so it didn't make it very easy when I had to put everything together. My hobbies include watching a lot of cartoons, so I wanted to do something along those lines."

Freshman Jane Finkel makes music in front of her "Music and Math" presentation.

Honorable mention winner in the fourth and fifth grade division was Adrienne Rilenge, a fifth grader with a painted nose to look like a dog, who researched the annual costs of having a bichon, as opposed to owning a golden retriever. She calculated it by calling a veterinarian and looking up prices of shots, pills, food, and toys, online and at the store. It costs her family $865.38 a year to maintain her bichon, while it would cost the average owner more than $1,468 for the retriever.

"Golden retrievers need four cups of food a day, while my dog only needs one," she noted. "Also, the golden retrievers go through 20 toys a year."

Fourth grader Dana Roguska knows one thing for sure: She loves watching television. When she was assigned this project, she had the idea to compare the prices of Charter cable and Dish satellite systems, but she didn't stop there. She wanted to answer the question, "Should my family switch back from satellite to cable to save money?" She calculated that it costs $26.45 a month for cable and $67.77 for satellite. She can receive 50 channels on cable and 170 non-pay-perview channels via satellite.

Then, she had everyone in her family write down the shows they watch. It turned out that they only watched eight on cable and 16 on satellite, but only because the 16 were available, not because they were true fans to those programs. They could live just fine without them, Miss Roguska observed. Blocking channels on the Dish network actually costs money, she also noted, and she concluded that her family should indeed go back to cable, because it is much more practical.

"It's a lot more fun to do these projects because you don't have to start them right away," she said of the mathematics fair. "You have a longer period to work on it, plus, your parents can help you with it. You can spend more time on it and you don't have to rush."

The high school students tackled some heavier issues in the mathematics world and built some models to go along with their topics.

Junior Caleb Straight chose the golden ratio as his topic, at Mrs. Bennett's suggestion. The golden ratio, or 'phi' in the Greek alphabet, can be explained by taking a square, drawing a line through the midpoint, using a protractor to measure corner to corner, then drawing a line to show you where the opposite corner is.

This was a topic in mathematics that Mr. Straight didn't know very much about before working on the project, but working hard on it turned out to be rewarding for him, because he was confident in explaining the methods of using the golden ratio.

"This was easier to understand than book work we do in class," he said. "You want to make sure you know everything on your poster and that you can explain it. You learn it better that way. Mrs. Bennett was great in helping me understand it."

Mrs. Bennett said takes pride in her students' understanding of the material. That is why she wanted to become a teacher in the first place.

"I love being able to see students get that little glimmer of, 'I finally understand!' I love that feeling," she said.

Third place winner in the Algebra II and above division was Riley Chaffee, a junior who discovered that the best launch point off a ramp is at 45 degrees. He also learned that the same distance away from the 45-degree mark will launch an object the same length from the ramp. For example, both a 40-degree launch point and a 50-degree launch point would send a ball with the same velocity the same distance, as long as there is no wind effect. Mr. Chaffee tied in his science class with this mathematics project.

"This wasn't a very hard project for me because I have been doing all of this in my physics class," he said. "The formulas are all fresh in my head and, since I had those, I was done very quickly."

Sophomore Rhodene "Michi" Mullings won second place honors for her "Death by Bridge" project. She has always wondered what the fate would be for a person jumping off a bridge and hitting different surfaces, like cement or water. She asked herself, "What is the terminal velocity of a person who jumps off the Mackinac Bridge when they hit the water?"

She built a model of the bridge with a person dangling on the edge.

The terminal velocity, she discovered, would be reached in 5.5 seconds, long before hitting the water, and whether the person hits water or concrete doesn't make much difference.

"I had a lot of fun building the bridge and using a saw," she said. "Not fun seeing people jumping off bridges while doing the research. It was tough finding the results, and it was tough to figure out if it was the same or different to hit different surfaces."

Freshman Jane Finkel's project was called "Music and Math." The two are closely related and, as a music student, she was curious about waves. She found that sound waves are measured in sine waves. They measure amplitude from two points, so that distance determines how loud something is.

"I was passionate about the instruments and I never looked into the mathematical part, and now that I have, I feel a little bit closer to my instruments," she said.

The overall winner of the fair was sophomore Fuller Cowell. His project, "Go Big or Go Home," determined the best angle and speed to drive a snowmobile a ramp would be. He used a scale model of the snowmobile he rides in the winter, and scaled the speed and ramps to the real machine. With the help of his physics teacher, he learned the physics involved in the project, and he demonstrated it with a PowerPoint presentation, complete with speakers and image projector.

"The most challenging part was scaling everything down, building the ramps, and figuring out the distances," he said. "It was actually fun learning all the physics. I love snowmobiling, and using these hands on material was a lot of fun. I enjoy sharing all the information with everyone."

In fourth and fifth grade, first place went to Meadow Greenlee's "Ancient Egyptian Math." Second place went to Paul Wandrie and his "How does math help us in our daily job?" project. Third place went to Colton Fisher who boasted MSU apparel while talking to the judges about how much tuition will be when he goes there. And two honorable mentions went to Kyra Kolatski for her "Shirt Scramble" and Adrienne Rilenge for her "Dog Costs Comparison."

In sixth and seventh grade, there was a tie for first place. Collin Armstrong's "Catapult Theory" and Lou Clark's "Average Ski Slopes" took home those honors. Second place was Onaca Bennett for her "Transformations in Computer Animations." Third place went to Anthony Rickley for "Napier's Bones" and three honorable mentions went to Devon Hunt's "Coin Probability," Leo Horn's "Pythagorean Theorem," and Caleb Kolatski's "Stealing Math" project.

In high school, the eighth grade and algebra I division had Maggie Chambers' "Math in Bubbles" as the first place winner. Morgan Brodeur-Bunker and her "Fueling a Horse" took home second place, while Robert Chafee's "All about Pi" was the third place winner. An honorable mention went to Paul Fisher and his "Birthday Cubics" project, which identified relationships between the graphs of different people's birthdays.

And finally, the algebra II and above division had not only a first place winner, but the overall winner as well in Fuller Cowell and his "Go Big or Go Home" presentation. Second place was given to Michi Mullings for her "Death by Bridge" project. Third place winner was Riley Chaffee and his "Best Launch Angle" presentation. An honorable mention went to Woody Beardsley and his project on "Pascal's Triangle."

The judges were Alexis Berke, an Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD) science enthusiast, Lorraine Gregory, a Lake Superior State University mathematics professor, Valerie Masuga, EUPISD curriculum consultant, and Michele Ribant, EUPISD director of mathematics and science.