Math Day 2.0

Three high school girls work together to solve a Math Bowl question

41 schools joined us virtually on Dec. 3, 2020

The first-ever online Math Day, referred to as Math Day 2.0, was held virtually on Thursday, December 3, 2020, hosted by the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Nebraska high schools were invited to join us online for a day of fast-paced mathematics.

340 students from 41 Nebraska high schools participated in the 31st annual Nebraska Math Day. This all-day event consisted of the PROBE II individual competition and the fast-paced Math Bowl 2.0 Swiss-system team competition. Recruiters from UNL departments and units hosted Zoom rooms throughout the day to interact with the bowl team participants. All participants were also provided with the opportunity to solve an escape room.

Math Day is designed for students in grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 and for exceptional students in lower grades. Teachers who would like to invite students from lower grades to participate must request and receive written permission from Nebraska Math Day. Homeschooled students are also welcome to attend but will need to contact us for a registration code. Contact us at mathday@unl.edu. Registration is now closed to new teams, but registered teams can still enter their rosters.

Math Bowl Tournament Results

The top four teams are listed for each class.

Competitive Class

Lincoln East C1: Joshua Lee, Joseph Allen, Cooper Penkava, Nixon Hanna, Daniel Kumm, Christina Xu
Scottsbluff C1: Dakota Andrews, Ken Pham, John Mentgen
Scottsbluff C2: Cade Horn, Riley Ibero, Wisley Mooc
Millard North C1: Joseph Zhong, Jalan Zhu, Shiv Lele, Advika Namas, Rohan Yalamanchili, Eshaan Giri

Recreational Class

Omaha Brownell-Talbot R1: Jacob Harding, Chris Schinzel, Maya Savory, Josh Randolph, Matt Schinzel, Asal Mohammadi
Lincoln East R1: Shrey Agarwal, Elaine Suh, Hannah Tang
Lincoln Southwest R1: Molly Nora, Kyla Kubik, Jason Jiang
Bellevue East R1: Sara Vance, Johnathon Hutchinson, Jacob Mendick, Will Eby, Chloe Zarp, Andrew Kasperek

PROBE II – Exam Honor Roll

Place	Name	School	Grade
1	Josh Lee	Lincoln East High School	12^th
2	Kenji Nakagawa	Lincoln Southwest High School	12^th
3	Kolton O'Neal	Gretna High School	12^th
4	Henrik Penney	CHAO Home School Association	12^th
5 (tie)	Ben Lyons	Omaha Creighton Prep	12^th
5 (tie)	Jonathan Xing	Lincoln Christian School	12^th
7	Henry Egan	Omaha Creighton Prep	12^th
8	Christina Xu	Lincoln East High School	9^th

Schedule

Time	Quiz Bowl	Other Activities
9:00		Watch Videos in Welcome Email
9:30	Competitive
10:00	Recreational
10:30	Competitive
11:00	Recreational
11:30	Competitive
12:00	Recreational	Lunch begins for Competitive class
12:30	Lunch for All	Most Department Display Zoom Rooms open
1:00	Recreational
1:30	Competitive
2:00	Recreational
2:30	Competitive
3:00	Competitive Semifinal (Top 4)
3:20	Competitive Championship (Top 2)

Competition Online

Math Day 2.0 will consist of one team mathematics competition, the Math Bowl 2.0, on Dec. 3. However, plans are in the works for a math activity that all of your math students can do at any time during the school year, not just on Dec. 3.

Math Bowl 2.0 is a Swiss-system tournament pitting three-member teams against each other. The team competitions will be divided into two classes, competitive and recreational, with trophies given to the top four teams in each class. Two teams will meet in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The Swiss system seeks to provide a clear winner with a large number of competitors and a relatively small number of rounds of competition, without a single bad result terminating participation. For more rules about the Math Bowl 2.0, see Rules for Students below.

We anticipate that bowl rounds will occur in the morning between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and in the afternoon between 1 and 3:30 p.m. A schedule will be finalized when we know how many teams are interested in competing. We are planning for a scenario in which a teacher would not have to request a sub and could ask other teachers to cover their class during their bowl rounds. At most, 12 kids would be taken out of class to compete in bowl rounds. We encourage your bowl team to compete on one Zoom account, but we will allow students to compete from home on individual Zoom accounts but then their collaboration will be limited.

We will not be offering the PROBE I (Problems Requiring Original and Brilliant Effort) exam in 2020.

Math Day's Purpose

stimulate interest in mathematics among Nebraska high school students,
encourage them to pursue mathematics or mathematics-based science as a career, and
recognize mathematical ability by awarding trophies.

Return to Normal Math Day

Visit Online With UNL Departments

The department display fair will be offered online throughout the day on Dec. 3. Departments, colleges and other units will provide Zoom links to meeting rooms where students are welcome to stop by to ask questions of a department recruitment representative. We anticipate the majority of these Zooms will be hosted between 12:30 and 3 p.m.

Rules for Students

Each school will be allowed two bowl teams: either (1) two teams in the competitive class; (2) one team in the competitive class and one in the recreational class; or (3) two teams in the recreational class.
Each bowl team can have up to six students. Students can rotate in between rounds.
Students may participate at school on one Zoom account or at various locations on up to four individual Zoom accounts (i.e., one per student plus the observing teacher).
Agreement of Expectations for students: The focus of this competition is exploring mathematics, and I will give my best effort to interact with the faculty and students who are volunteering their time to speak with me and to participate in the activities provided by UNL. For my safety, I will only join Zoom meetings advertised by Math Day with approved UNL Activity Workers. I will notify Math Day of any inappropriate Zoom behavior. I will treat my surroundings with the appropriate respect. I agree to follow the instructions and schedule established by Math Day. If at any time the UNL staff deems my behavior unacceptable, my teacher may be notified, and I may be asked to leave the Zoom event(s).