High Schoolers to Match Math Wits

Westmont hosts its 22nd annual mathematics contest for high school students Saturday, Feb. 7. Participating this year will be Bishop Garcia Diego High School, Cate School, Crescenta Valley High School, Dos Pueblos High School, Oaks Christian High School, Providence Hall, San Marcos High School, Santa Barbara High School, and the Thacher School.

The contest begins at 1 p.m. with chalk talks, written exams and a fast-paced team competition with buzzers modeled after the once-popular College Bowl TV show. Finals will get under way beginning at 4 p.m. in Porter Theatre. Dinner and an awards ceremony will be at 5:30 p.m. in the Kerr Student Center.

The contest also includes a Chalk Talk Derby, where students are required to communicate mathematical ideas. Each student will deliver a 10-minute talk on this year’s topic “Recurrence Relations,” which is an equation relating a term in a sequence to one or more of its predecessors in the sequence.

A contest itinerary, map, sample questions and photos from past events can be found at www.westmont.edu/departments/mcs/mathcontest/index.html.