Volume 1, Issue 5
February 14, 2007

Table of Contents

1. 2007 Orange County Math Olympiad Summer Camp
2. Spring Session Registration for Math Olympiad/Problem Solving Training
3. FREE California Math League Contests
4. 2007 Orange County Math Field Day
5. Dr. James Li to Present at 2007 Orange County Mathematics Conference
6. Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth
7. Five Myths About U.S. Kids Really Outclassed by the Rest of the World
8. Dr. Terence Tao: The Development of a Math Prodigy

1. 2007 Orange County Math Olympiad Summer Camp

The preliminary information on the 2007 Orange County Math Olympiad Summer Camp is available at www.avidacademy.com. We will again host the camp at Concordia University.  Session A is from July 9 to 20 and session B is from July 23 to August 3, 2007.  We have expanded our program from last year to cover three age groups:

• 08:30 - 11:30 AM: Fermat Division (Grades 5 - 6)
• 12:30 - 03:30 PM: Euler Division (Grades 7 - 8)
• 03:00 - 06:00 PM: Gauss Division (Grades 9 - 12)

Note: Groupings are based on a student's math level rather than the actual physical age.

2. Spring Math Olympiad Training Class Registration

Avid Academy 2007 Spring Session offers 10-week of Math Olympiad and Problem Solving training from March 10, 2007 to May 26, 2007 at Concordia University, Irvine, CA.  The registration period is February 10 - 25, 2007.  Current students should receive their renewal registration in the mail by February 20, 2007.  Prospective new students should schedule a qualifying exam and interview prior to registration.  For more information, please visit: 2006-2007 Math Olympiad Training Program Spring Session Registration.

3. FREE California Math League Contests (Grades 6-8)

Through a special arrangement with California Math League, Avid Academy will sponsor 15 Orange County teams in grades 6-8 to participate in the 2007 California Math League contests. 

For information on qualification, team composition, contest rules and registration, please visit 2007 California Math League Contest.

The Sixteenth Annual Orange County Mathematics Field Day, sponsored by the Orange County Mathematics Council, the California Mathematics Council, and the Orange County Department of Education, will be held on May 5 and May 19 for students in grades 4 - 6.  The registration deadline is February 23, 2007.

The Math Field Day is a team-based problem solving competition.  A team of four students in each grade compete in five categories as specified in the California Math Curriculum Framework: 1) Number Sense, 2) Algebra and Functions, 3) Measurement and Geometry, 4) Statistics, Data Analysis and Probability, 5) Mathematical Reasoning.  It is the largest elementary school academic competition in Orange County. 

If your school has a team, please go support the team and help out during team practices.  If your school does not have a team, you can work with school administration and PTA to organize a team.  Any adult can serve as a coach.  It costs $60 to register a team.  For more information:

• May 5, 2007: Orange County Math Field Day Northern Section
• May 19, 2007: Orange County Math Field Day Southern Section

Dr. Li will make two presentations at the 2007 Orange County Mathematics Conference to be held at Double Tree Hotel in the city of Orange.  The goal of the Orange County Mathematics Conference is to support the development of high quality mathematics instruction for all students. This annual event provides classroom teachers, leaders, and administrators with a wide variety of ideas, information, and experiences for teaching and implementing high quality mathematics, as well as the opportunity to network with colleagues.  There will be national as well as local leaders in mathematics education sharing their ideas for supporting success for all students.

Dr. Li will present the following topics:

• Singapore Math and Gifted Math Education: Discuss the pros and cons of adopting Singapore Math for gifted math education in grades 1-6.  Singapore Math is a problem-solving based math curriculum used in Singapore public schools whose students consistently scored highest in international assessment of student math abilities.
• Math Magic: Five Magic Tricks to Make Math Fun: Learn how to use math related magic tricks to enhance classroom experience for talented students.

When I was pursuing my Ph.D. at USC School of Education, there was a big debate on Instructivism vs. Constructivism as two different ways of teaching and learning.

• Instructivism: direct instruction by a teacher employing learning objectives and lesson plan to teach an agreed body of knowledge. 
• Constructivism: students learn through "constructing" their own knowledge by testing ideas with relevant and engaging learning activities.

At the time, I thought these are just different teaching tools to be used based on student's ability, learning content, and teacher's experience.  However, in the past twenty years, the instructivism gradually lost out to constructivism and many constructivism research ideas have been implemented in mainstream curriculum standards and textbooks.  The results are mixed, especially in the area of mathematics.  Mrs. McDermott explained the difference between the two approaches in this YouTube video.

Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi challenged conventional thinking that America will lose its competitiveness when our students lag behind other industrialized nation in math and science.  He identified the Five Myths About U.S. Kids Outclassed by the Rest of the World.  Do you agree with his view?

Terence Tao, the "Mozart of Math", was born in Australia in 1975.  He demonstrated his gift in mathematics in an early age.  He scored 760 on SAT Math at age 8 and attended university when he was 9 years old.   At age of 13, he won a gold medal at the International Math Olympiad competition. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University at age of 20 and currently is a professor at UCLA.  In 2006, at age of 31, he became the first Fields Medal winner at UCLA.  Here is a detailed profile of Terence Tao: Wikipedia on Terence Tao.