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A day at HMMT 2011
By James H. Choi
http://column.SabioAcademy.com
Source Link
Korean version: HMMT 2011 의 하루
A day at HMMT
HMMT stands for Harvard MIT Math Tournament. You can find detailed information on this site: http://web.mit.edu/hmmt/www/
HMMT 2011 was held on Saturday, February 12. I took two teams there this year, and one 8th grade student was place in 6th place in Algebra-Geometry. (this tournament is for high school students) I took two teams last year as well, and one student was placed in the first place in Algebra.
I would like to you show you a day at HMMT. This year it was held at MIT. Next year, it will be at Harvard. (They alternate every year.) The videos were taken on my phone. It is just clear enough to give an idea of the day.
Below is the registration scene. Starting 8AM, the contestants register themselves.
After registering, and before the test starts, you can have free breakfast.
If you registered already, and ate already but the test didn`t start yet, this is one way some students pass time until the test.
The first test is the individual round. It used to be two separate tests, but now it is one combined test of 20 problems and 2 hours. You can choose two subject from Algebra, Geometry, Combinatorics and Calculus. Thus, there are six possible combinations, and there are six testing locations. This is Algebra-Combinatorics testing room scene.
Team round is the next test. It is a 90 minute test (used to be 60 min). There are two types A, and B. A is harder (all proofs) and B is easier (only some proofs) Each team can have up to 8 students.
This is the team I proctored in group round
While the students are taking the tests, the coaches are patiently waiting outside (if they are not proctoring). When I was not proctoring (during Individual round) I was also watching out for the students` bags. The sleeping bags are for my students to use that night for their “MIT dorm sleeping experience.”
Then there is lunch. After lunch, there are mini sessions where students can learn about interesting topics presented by MIT students. It is an intellectual relaxation time.
The last test is the Guts Round. Most exciting and noisiest test. The teams are graded in real time and the scores are projected in front in real time. It feels as if one is in some sporting event. This is also 90 minutes.
Team of 8 solves 4 problems at a time. Then you have to run to hand in the answers, then pick up the next 4 problems. (It used to be 3 problems until last year.)
Claire, (Sabio Academy’s director`s daughter) scoreboard, then the scene of guts round.
The end of Guts Round count down scene
Now the tests are over. There is an award ceremony, then HMMT is over.
Protected: How to win at Regional Science Fairs Part 3
Protected: How to win at Regional Science Fairs Part 2
Have Only One Calendar
By James H. Choi
http://column.SabioAcademy.com
Source Link
Dear Sabio Students,
You always accomplish less when your days lack organization. (You see the same thing in parking lots covered in snow: They always fit fewer cars because drivers don’t see the organization.) The first thing you need to organize your life is a calendar. But the modern-day warrior’s calendar must meet these specifications:
- It must be indestructible. (i.e. online in Cloud storage)
- It must be accessible anywhere. (smart phone, web access)
- It must automatically synchronize among all devices
Various services are available to help you do this: I use Exchange Server in Microsoft Outlook but it costs you money. For free services, try Google Calendar, or any other services that allows you to access your calendar on any computer or on your smartphone. And it must synchronize, i.e., whatever you change on the phone calendar must update automatically on the server and vice versa. Above two programs are the ones I have used, but most modern calendar programs should perform all three specifications listed above. But check before you start entering your data.
- The surest way to miss an appointment is to have multiple calendars. Have only one calendar no matter how complex a life you lead. In fact, the more complex your life, the more you need to consolidate your commitments into one calendar. This comes as a shock to many people but your life has only one timeline; it can never overlap itself. No matter how tempting, do not separate your school, social, and extracurricular lives into a calendar apiece.
- Enter recurring events such as birthdays and weekly meetings in one entry. Your calendar should allow you to specify all manners of recurrence such as “the first Friday of every month.” If the weekly lesson stops unexpectedly, then just change the ending date rather than deleting the whole entry. If there was an exception in the middle, you can “break” that day out of the recurrence and change it individually. That way, you have an accurate record of what you did where when.
- Set alarms lead time properly. Imagine where you’ll be as you leave for an event. For example, if you have an chess match in your school right after tennis practice, then a 15-minute notice suffices. But if you’re setting an alarm for a morning appointment, set an alarm 12 hours earlier. Getting the alarm the night before will remind you to go to bed early. If you need to send a birthday gift for a friend who lives across the world, you might need two weeks’ lead time to avoid paying for express delivery service. These alarms will also save you from the embarrassment of forgetting an important recurring events such as birthdays and anniversaries. For a super important date, set up multiple alarms programmed to remind you at different lead times.
- When you enter an appointment into your calendar, use consistent and intuitive terminology. Consider what would happen if you tried to search this appointment years from now. What key words would you search for? Enter these into the appointment name. That way, if you are struck by a burning desire to know how many piano lessons you took in 2011, you can search “piano lessons” to list all lessons.
- When entering events in different time zones, enter the time they would happen in your local time. This takes some work because flight schedules always specifies the local departing and landing time. (This work is made easy by displaying dual time zone on your calendar. Your phone also can be forced into different time zone temporarily.) But this extra work will pay off when you can trust all your local meeting times and flight schedules as your smart phone goes through many time zone changes.
- Paper calendars have charm, but paper calendars can get lost, won’t remind you of events, and won’t adapt to the local time zones. If you must, you can always print your electronic calendar in various formats: by day, week, month, etc.
Your contact information (e.g., friends’ phone numbers) should be arranged the same way: stored on a server and accessible on your phone. Any time you have a friend who writes, “Hey, send me ur numberz I lost them all,” on Facebook, rest assured this person doesn’t know how to manage his information. It’s OK to be this person’s friend, but never hire him as a project manager in your future company because when he lose his phone, as he already proved that he is capable, the whole project could go down with him. Most importantly, don’t let yourself be this person.
How to win at Regional Science Fairs Part 1
How to win at Regional Science Fairs Part 1
by James H. Choi
http://Column.SabioAcademy.com
james.choi@sabioacademy.com
Dear Sabio Students,
The Regional Science Fairs are the last obstacle between you and the ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair). The ISEF pays for you to vacation with science geniuses from all around the world, and the fair’s host organization goes out of its way to entertain you. In 2011, the host took finalists to Universal Studios in L.A. And it holds dance parties too. All expenses, including hotel and airfare, are paid, and you get a stipend to spend on whatever will enhance your attitude that “life is good.”
But succeeding at the regional fairs is hard; the winners are few. This document shows you how many winners go to ISEF from your region; just find your Regional Science Fair in the document.
So how many went to ISEF from your region? And how many entered? Chances are, you have 100:1 to 1000:1 competition (i.e., you’re competing against 100 to 1000 other students). Granted, most of them are clueless. “My mom told me to do this,” they’ll say. But it takes only two or three serious competitors to nudge you off the winners’ podium. One reason there are so few winners is that they cost money. Every winner costs an ISEF sponsor thousands of dollars — for the airfare, hotel, and (yes) that handsome stipend. It’s actually against the rule for the student to pay for anything.
Plenty of students make it to their states’ science fairs. But they won’t go further, to the regional fairs . You must, and you must do well there — because only succeeding at the regional fair qualifies you for ISEF.
In addition to selecting only a few winners out of hundreds, the regional science fair makes your job harder because of all the criteria its judges set. If you were Einstein standing in front of the judges and explaining the newly discovered Special Theory of Relativity, you would still lose the fair if your poster weren’t the right size, or if you were shy and acted like it, such as by not looking the judges in the eye.
No (g00d) sports player is going to enter a game without knowing the rules. But many Science Fair contestants are clueless! Don’t be one of them. To learn the rules, study this Chicago Regional Science Fair Scoring Rubrics. (Find your specific region’s rules and prepare your presentation accordingly.) Look at that sheet: How scientifically profound your research is comprises only a small part of the maximum 53 points! But how you ran the experiment and how you validated the results each count more than whatever great truth your experiment uncovers in its conclusion. If you lose just a few points in the “Display” and “Presentation” criteria sections (which together total 16 points), you won’t stand a chance to win even if you were Einstein.
Those who are doing simulation research need to prepare especially well because they also must explain why they should get a full score on an extra “Experimental Approach” section. A good sample argument might look like this:
This research’s purpose is to reduce the need for doing actual experiments. There are many experiments that are too costly (e.g., car-crash tests), too destructive (e.g., the effect of a nuclear power plant explosion) or impossible (e.g., what would happen to the tide if we had two Moons?). Simulation research like mine eliminates all unnecessary experiments and allows us to focus our money and time on the few areas that truly require experiments.
or like this:
An experimental approach is built into this simulation. When I wrote an algorithm for the simulation, I had to decide on the approach, of course, and it is this: then show the flow chart.
As for the control group, you can say something along the lines of this:
I have implemented two different types of simulations. Type A serves as a control group because it was allowed to take a natural course. Type B is the test group because I actively regulated this and that (insert your variables here).
or this:
The simulation is the experiment, and what we observed in nature/industry/society is the control. My research is on how to improve what we already have in nature/industry/society by intervening using my algorithm.
As for the “Reliability of Data” section, show an impressive number of random numbers, initial conditions or variations on constants. All of those could be meaningless scientifically speaking. But the judges are conditioned to look for multiple experiments with averaged values, which account for random variations. Rather than trying to explain the preciseness of simulated digital data, do multiple runs by changing plausible variations to the first run, which makes it look similar to multiple runs, multiple measurements. You’ll lower the expected error type of traditional scientific experiments
If you did purely theoretical work, such as work with the Number Theory, then you need to explain why you should get a full score on estimating your experimental error. You need to invoke Pythagoras, who came up with the Pythagorean Theorem, which produces zero error. Also, bring up Einstein, who didn’t do a single experiment. The only equipment Einstein ever used was a blackboard, yet his purely theoretical work become a foundation of many technological developments. Emphasize that theoretical work like yours, and just like Einstein’s, opens doors for the experimenting scientists to test your theory, which in turn allow engineers to produce real gadgets, such as the iPad (or whatever a popular engineering product is at the time).
P.S.
A special words of caution for those who grew up in the Far East. You need to work on your firm handshakes and steady gazes into the judges’ eyes. These indicators of confidence are considered acts of rudeness in Far Eastern cultures (e.g., Japanese, Korean, Chinese.) Every time I judge someone from that culture, I am left with an impression that he or she has something to hide and suffers from a severe self-esteem problem — so I judge that student unworthy of being a winner. Even though I used to act like that student, I still succumb to this powerfully negative impression. Imagine what a judge unexposed to other cultures would think? You have no chance with anyone from the West if all you give is a dead-fish handshake and shifty, downcast eyes.
It sounds simple, but it takes a lot of practice to overcome this culture barrier. Every time I meet a dead-fish handshake student, I correct the problem on the spot. I correct students’ gazes as well. It takes three or four tries before a student can do a half-way decent job of either, but I know they’ll revert back to the old handshake and eyes when I’m gone. Their facial expression says, “What is this weirdo doing? I have to forget this incident quickly!” They don’t understand I’m preparing them for Western judgments. So be sure to practice these gestures. Ask your teacher if your handshake seems confident or firm. And practice talking to an adult your parents’ age while looking into their eyes. Any teacher would be inspired by you asking for five minutes to practice this. If you feel you are rudely staring at the adult, then you are doing it right.
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