Director's Office: #210-218, 1924 West Mall, UBC, Vancouver, V6T 1Z2. (604) 822-3922


A brief report on this event

First Annual PIMS Elementary Grades Math Contest

Saturday, 19th June, 1999, from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. in
Rooms 104 and 110 of the ANGUS Building at UBC.

The exact address of the Angus Building is 2053 Main Mall. On the attached campus map it is marked in red. The bus loop and the bookstore are marked in green for the purpose of orientation. An old black and white photo of the Angus building is also available. The main entrance is in the bottom right corner of that picture. A weekend flat rate of $3 is charged for parking on the UBC campus.

Click here if you want to check who else beside you has registered for this contest. The list is alphabetical (first names first) within each grade.

Between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m. contestants must report to the Registration Desk in the foyer of the Angus Building. There will be two divisions:


Schedule

12:30 - 1:00 pm Registration
1:00 - 1:15 pm Opening Remarks
1:15 - 2:00 pm Sprint Round (25 questions in 40 minutes)
2:00 - 2:40 pm Target Round (3 sets of 3 questions in 10 minutes)
2:40 - 2:55 pm Refreshment Break
2:55 - 3:40 pm Problem Solving Round (strategies and common mistakes will be discussed)
3:40 - 4:30 pm Countdown Round
4:30 - 5:00 pm Awards Presentation

Since this is the first year of the contest, there was unfortunately no time to organize teams for a Team Round. They are, however, planned for next year.

This information -- including sample problems -- is also available on the internet at

http:// www. math.ubc.ca/~hoek/PIMS/Elmacon/Elmacon.html
and will be updated as necessary.


Contacts



Dr. Cary Chien
David Thompson Secondary,
1755 East 55th Avenue,
Vancouver, V5P 1Z7
Tel.: (604) 321 - 6741
fax.: (604) 322 - 5681
Dr. Klaus Hoechsmann
Department of Mathematics, UBC
#121 -- 1984 Mathematics Road,
Vancouver, V6T 1Z2
Tel.: (604) 822 - 5458
fax.: (604) 822 - 6074


Format

This competition is open to all students between Grade 5 and Grade 7 free of charge. The Grade 5 and 6 students will be competing in one division while the Grade 7 students will compete in a separate division.

1 Sprint round

The competition consists of a sprint round, a target around, and a countdown round. In the sprint round there will be a total of 25 to 30 questions. The participants will have 40 minutes to finish the questions. No calculators are allowed. Here is a sample question:
Ex.: Determine the sum of the following series: 1 + 3 + 5 + … + 197 + 199.

2 Target round

The target round consists of 9 questions. Three of them are given in a package at a time and the participants will have 10 minutes to complete each set of questions. Non-programmable calculators are allowed in this round.
Ex: There six people in a room. If each of them shakes hands with all the others, how many handshakes will there be in total?

3 Countdown

Only the top ten students of each division will be invited to their own countdown round. The score is calculated by combining the number of correct responses in the sprint and the target rounds with each correct answer in the target round counted as two marks.

In the countdown round, the tenth ranking student will first go up against the ninth ranking student. They will be seated in front of a projector which displays one question at a time, and have buzzers in front of them, which they may ring -- within a 45 seconds time limit -- as soon as they know the answer. After the ringer's name is called, the answer must be provided within 3 seconds. If it is correct, a point is scored; otherwise the opponent will have the rest of the 45 seconds to come up with the solution. In order to beat the opponent, a contestant must have the better point total after three questions. In the event of a tie, a sudden death round will occur, in which the first person to answer one question correctly will advance.

The winner between the ninth and tenth ranking student gets to face the eighth ranking student and so on. The rules change slightly when the challenger gets to the fourth ranking student: the winner from then on is whoever first answers three consecutive questions correctly. Eventually an overall winner for each division will be determined. If time permits, the top few students from each division may be arranged in another countdown round going face to face against each other.