MaPP Middle School Challenge

The Teacher Education Department and the Department of Mathematics at Lamar University are proud to partner with Mathematical Puzzle Programs (MaPP) to bring mathematical puzzle events to Lamar’s campus. This event is sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development.

The MaPP Middle School Challenge ’17 is a team-based mathematical puzzle competition for middle school students held at multiple college campuses across the country. Unlike most math competitions, MSC17 doesn’t require any knowledge beyond basic mathematics and rewards players’ problem-solving ability over their previous mathematical background. For more information, please visit http://mappmath.org

Please register each team you wish to bring to MaPP MSC17 at Lamar University. Space is limited to two teams per school; early registration is strongly encouraged, so that we can provide lunch and a shirt for each student and teacher/chaperone. Each team can have up to 8 members, and must have at least 5 members. Register your teams by clicking here.

Teams will be presented with six puzzles testing their deductive reasoning ability and introducing concepts from mathematical fields such as cryptography, game theory, or others. Solving puzzles will require the team to run out and interact with Lamar University’s campus to collect solution tokens. Tokens will be shown to the organizer at Staff Headquarters to receive credit, and the team which solves the most puzzles the fastest wins the competition.

What follows is a tentative schedule for the event, due to take place at Lamar University on Friday, November 18, 2016:

● Registration: 9:00-9:30

● Welcome and Rules: 9:30-9:45

● Opening Puzzle: 9:45-10:15

● First Puzzle Phase: 10:15-11:45

● Lunch Break: 11:45-12:30

● Second Puzzle Phase: 12:30-2:00

● Final Puzzle: 2:00-2:30

● Closing Ceremonies: 2:30-3:00

Snacks and drinks will be available for the students during the competition. Teams will have to arrange their own transportation.

We have provided a "teaser" puzzle to give you a taste of the kind of mathematical challenges your teams will face on November 18; give it your best shot! Contact me (pjcouch@lamar.edu) or Dr. Titus (freddie.titus@lamar.edu) for more information about signing up your teams, or check on the web (here). I hope to hear from you soon!