WSMC Middle School Math Olympiad
Beginning with the 1995 WSMC Math Olympiad, the form and nature of this event for 5th through 8th grade students has undergone several important changes, all of which have been focused on reflecting the spirit of the NCTM Curriculum and Evaluation Standards in this yearly event. The Olympiad has been held in more than one site since 1995, and since 1996 the tests or events in the Olympiad have included a onehour team openended problemsolving (Session I) event that has been scored using a problemsolving rubric rather than a "one right answer" framework. The Session II are similar to earlier Olympiad tests, with teams working to reach a correct answer for each problem, and the categories of these tests now reflect the Washington State Essential Academic Learning 1 content strands Number Sense, Measurement, Geometric Sense, Probability and Statistics, and Algebraic Sense. Other changes have been in the type of awards distributed at the Olympiad. Medals, ribbons, and certificate seals are awarded based on the standard of performance reached by each team participating in the events. The levels of performance are Superior, Excellent, Very Good, and Good, and medals earned reflect Superior performances across events, while ribbons reflect Excellent performances across events. The new criteria support students working to reach levels of performance, striving to improve their own performances, rather than to perform better than other schools and earn a limited number of awards.
The 1998 Middle School Math Olympiad will be the third Olympiad to be held since changing the format of the Olympiad to include a rubricscored ProblemSolving event (Session I) as well as the five contentarea short tests (Session II). The Olympiad Committee, which consists of individuals who are committed to creating and evaluating the Olympiad events for each year, has targeted the following areas for focused efforts in planning for the 1998 Olympiad: 1. adjusting and clearly identifying the criteria necessary for earning Superior, Excellent, Very Good, and Good awards in the Olympiad events and the awarding of ribbons and medals, 2. clarifying the scoring methods and criteria used in evaluating the Session I and Session II events (including providing for coaches and students samples of Olympiad work earning the various scores to help them understand the criteria, if possible) and, thus, working toward a greater consistency in scoring of events across the state, and 3. standardizing proctor and Olympiad administration directions across the five regional sites in the state.
The Oympiad was held in five regional locations on May 3, 1997: Bellingham, Cheney, Ellensburg, Gig Harbor, and Vancouver. It will be held at these same five sites on Saturday, May 2, 1998. An Olympiad announcement providing introductory information and a form to request further information about the 1998 Olympiad will be mailed to schools by early December 1997. Those teachers requesting further information and registration forms will receive a more detailed pamhlet during the month of January. (One or more detailed pamphlets will be mailed to each school, regardless of teacher requests, in addition to responses to individual teachers.)
If you are interested in working on or with the Olympiad Committee to suggest problems for tests, assist in reviewing and/or editing tests, mail out materials, or assist in other decisions to be made for 1998, please contact Diane Azim, state cocoordinator (see below). Nearly 600 teams of 5th through 8th grade students participated in the Math Olympiad in 1997. It is our hope that a similar (or greater) number of students participate in the Olympiad next year, and that they find the Olympiad to be an experience that helps them discern and develop their mathematical power as well as their mathematical communication, reasoning, problemsolving, and teamcollaboration skills.
Additional information about the Olympiad can be received by accessing the World Wide Web site for the Math Olympiad and/or contacting Diane Azim or Jean Abel, state cocoordinators, or one of the site coordinators listed below for the 1998 Oympiad.
| Diane Azim (State cocoordinator), 509-3592876, dazim@ewu.edu | Jean Abel (State cocoordinator, Cheney coordinator), 509-9631453, abelj@cwu.edu |
| Sarah Callow (Gig Harbor coordinator), 2535669233 | Tami Matsumoto (State committee contributor), 509-5357712, tamimats@gte.net |
| Mark Oursland (Ellensburg coordinator), 509-9632100, oursland@cwu.edu | Becky Sowders (Vancouver coordinator), 360-6046500 ext. 5548, bsowders@egreen.wednet.edu |
| Susan Zoller (Bellingham coordinator), 360-6766545, szoller@msmail.bham.wednet.edu | Math Olympiad World Wide Web site: http://www.csmt.ewu.edu/csmt/math/dazim/wsmc.mo |
©WSMC and Richard T. Edgerton