Arkansas's first annual high school math conference and competition will occur April 17th and 18th in NWA. Our mission is to cultivate student enthusiasm for mathematics by fostering community and purpose in the mathematics arena. We will fulfill this through various types of competitions, speaker sessions, tours of the University of Arkansas, and more! We will offer speaker sessions for students to pique their interests in various mathematics topics, future careers and programs of study, and real world applications. We will also have sessions for teachers, where they can acquire up to 6 hours of PD.
If you are interested in presenting a student or teacher session please, please fill out the Google form below.
Additionally, here are some of the speaker sessions you can anticipate!
Teacher Sessions:
AR Math QuEST:
This session will provide an overview of AR Math QuEST including 21st Century Skill demands, STEM, equity, the research on mathematical proficiency, and evidence-based instructional strategies. AR Math QuEST promotes equity and engagement of all students in meaningful mathematics learning experiences of reasoning and problem solving to increase student achievement and foster a positive math identity.
Crime Scene Investigation (teacher edition):
Trigonometry Edition: A teacher presentation would include the resources/how-to for teachers to set up their own crime scene investigation activity in their own geometry or pre-calculus class.
Eliciting and Using Evidence of Student Thinking in High School Math
Elicit and Use Evidence of Student Thinking, one of the effective mathematics teaching practices from Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (NCTM, 2014, p. 53), allows teachers “to assess progress toward mathematical understanding and to adjust instruction continually in ways that support and extend learning.” This session will focus on the shift in classroom practice from only looking at correct answers toward looking for students’ thinking. During this session participants will explore instructional moves and strategies to use formative assessment to positively impact student learning in the high school math classroom.
Math Myth Mismatch:
Engaging Strategies in the Classroom Are you struggling to engage students from the very beginning of class? Do students need more practice with justification? Do you want to bring more literacy into your classroom? This session will address bell ringer strategies that can be utilized to draw students into the lesson while prompting students to defend their own answers. This session will also incorporate literacy and its application in the math classroom while also opening conversations about issues beyond the math curriculum.
Student Sessions:
Crime Scene Investigation (teacher edition):
Trigonometry Edition: Present to students the right triangle trigonometry/algebra behind crime scene investigation to include -- finding the location of a sniper shooter, the point of origin of blood spatter, the speed of the get-away car.
Curvature and 4D:
Tour the College of Engineering:
Graph-iti Art:
I will be leading a session on how to make art using equations. Utilizing Desmos, we will learn how to create mountains, make a moving circle, “draw” your favorite character, and so much more!