1998 WSMC
H.S. Mathematics Contest
Team Project Question
THE QUESTION
The object of this team project question is to give you a context in which you can use mathematics to investigate and build your understanding of a complex situation.
Please refer to the Contest Rules document for the details of the composition of your team and the expectations of how to complete this project question.
The Question:
There is a good deal of evidence that this year is shaping up as a strong "El Niño" year. The El Niño phenomenon causes equatorial trade winds to slacken and warm water to spread along Eastern Pacific shores halfway across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Various effects are forecast for the weather in the United States.
The team project question this year has two parts:
In order to answer these questions you will need to analyze a wide spectrum of data using appropriate mathematical techniques. For the second question, you will need to choose some business or economic activity, public or private, e.g., a ski resort, and investigate the effects of El Niño on that activity.
Your investigation will result in three "products." The first will be a written report. The second will be a very brief presentation before an audience and a panel of judges. The third will be a display of some kind that you will use to summarize your findings for judges and others who will come to you and ask you questions about your work. In all three, you will need to explain your findings and conclusions, give reasons for the variables you decided to investigate and for the methods you chose to employ in the investigation, and so forth. In the final evaluation, the report will account for 70% of the total points. The presentation will account for 10% and the display will account for the remaining 20%. Below you will find explanations of these three products and the ways in which they will be evaluated.
The report must be sent to your Regional Representative and be postmarked by March 1, 1998!
I. The Report (70%)
The entire report should be ten pages of fewer. The pages should be numbered and have one inch margins all around. Please use a legible font and do not use a font smaller than 12 for the text of the report.
The report that you generate will have four parts. The first is an Introduction in which you will tell us, basically, what you make of the question. What do we need to understand about this question? How can mathematics be used to address it? Tell us briefly and in general terms, what you have chosen to investigate and how you have decided to conduct the investigation, and perhaps most importantly, why you have made these decisions.
The next section is labeled Methodology. In this section you will describe in some detail, what you did and how you did it. This should include not only how you gathered the data but how you analyzed it as well. This description needs to be sufficiently detailed so that someone else could read it and be able to reproduce your investigation. You must also tell us why you made these decisions.
The third section is contains the Results. Here, you tell us what you found out. You should display raw (or summarized) data where it is necessary but this will also involve interpretation and re-presentation of the analyzed data in a format that makes sense for the overall message you are trying to convey.
In the final section, Conclusions, you should tell us what you made of all of this. You have used mathematics to "make sense" of this situation. What have you learned about the situation? What do you conclude?
Evaluation of the Report
Judges will carefully read the report and make determinations as to the quality of the work in each of sixteen areas. For example, after reading the Introduction, they will make judgments regarding the clarity of expression, the correctness of the grammar, the completeness of the introduction and the degree to which logical support is offered for the rationale. A rating of 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 (see box below) will be assigned by the judges for each of the following attributes in the sections listed.
Introduction:
Methodology
Results
Conclusions
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
Excellent |
Adequate |
Almost there |
Inadequate |
Ungradeable |
exceeds expectations |
meets expectations |
minor flaws |
doesn't meet expectations |
can't be graded |
Here's an example for "clarity" under Introduction. After reading the Introduction, the judge will assign 4 points if the clarity of the presentation far exceeds expectations for clarity, 3 points if it exceeds expectations, 2 points if it meets expectations, 1 point if does not meet expectations and 0 points if the objectives as described above are not addressed at all, or if for any other reason they are unable to evaluate the introduction with regard to clarity.
The judge will do the same for grammar and completeness. Because there are 3 attributes to be evaluated in this section, this will result in a possible total of 3x4=12 points assigned to this section of the report. Note, however, that the sections are not weighted equally. The following weights have been assigned to the four sections of the report:
Introduction 15%
Methodology 30%
Results 30%
Conclusions 25%
II. The Presentation (10%)
On the day of the contest, your team will give a very brief (five minutes) presentation summarizing your investigation. The evaluation of the presentation will focus on your communication skills more than on the quality of the mathematics which receives primary emphasis in the report and during the display. You will be evaluated on
As in the evaluation of the report, each of these three categories will be rated 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0. All three categories will be weighted equally.
* Please note that, in general, you will need to bring all of the supplies and equipment needed to make the presentation and the display. Contact your Regional director to find out whether any basic equipment will be supplied at the contest site, but do not count on anything other than what you bring.
III. The Display (20%)
On the day of the contest, you will set up and "staff" a display where you will talk with people about your investigation. You should have some sort of visual display that summarizes the highlights of your investigation. This, however, is only part of the process. More importantly, you should be prepared to summarize the results generally and to answer specific questions from judges about your work. These questions can cover any aspect of the work you have done, including details from the report and will allow the judges to finish their evaluation of the investigation. These displays will be set up in an area that is available to all of the participants in the contest and so you may also get questions from others who are interested in your work. At least one member of the team must be present at all times. The display will be evaluated on the basis of your
As in the evaluation of the report, each of these three categories will be rated 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0. All four categories will be weighted equally.
Click here to see more detail on the scoring rubric.
When all of the reports, presentations, and displays have been evaluated, judges will decide the numerical cutoffs for the ratings that will be assigned to the investigations. These ratings are Superior, Excellent, Good, and Fair.
© 1998 WSMC and Richard T. Edgerton