Isabella Mora








Throughout the morning we looked up potential math questions for the competition and divided up the work. I feel connected to the purpose of this service learning group even though I’m not doing the purely mathematics aspect yet. I’m mostly helping organize material and email the sponsors. By looking onto the work of the people at my table I got a feel for the level of math required to direct others, which I’ll need by the time Math Field Day happens. I was still confused as to what we were supposed to do for the powerpoint questions, but then I soon realized all we had to do was come up with questions from the fields of math listed on the board. Although I had seen problems like the ones on Wednesday, I had not catalogued them as specifically “Engineering” or “Analysis”. So I refreshed my memory of the different fields and categories, which I’ll become faster at as I develop skills for this group. The most enjoyable part of the day was watching Aydin and Emin face off to answer the competition questions. It was funny to see how some of the questions were too difficult, but we expected 8th graders to get them. The competition between the two helped to tweak the process and also made math actively fun. I noticed many of the questions presented were very similar to the ones on SAT mock tests, which made me very self aware and made me want to do well in  mental math. Next time we all meet I will persevere more in talking to others for better communication, and also to become more involved in the math aspect of it even as I help with other organizational things.



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 Math Field Day Personal Blog 10/4
Today was the first time we had all the group members and faculty present together, so we finished our planning of the event.  After reviewing the schedule and tests from last year, we finished our rough outline of the day’s events, combining two tests and adding a new round.  During the planning process, I spoke up at times and talked about other math events I had been to and some successful methods they used.  Because I had the most experience participating in events like the countdown round, I talked about the details and timing of it.  

After we finished our outline of the actual event, we split into groups.  Some people worked on drafting a letter to schools and sponsors, while Michelle, David, Jordan, and I worked on creating problems for the countdown round.  We made about 20 problems together, drawing inspiration from other similar competitions.  To make sure they were an appropriate level, we had two people, Aydin and Emin go head to head and test all the problems.  We ended up having to change a few of them and will have to move some of them to later in the competition.  After we finished that, we started assigning roles to everyone and which test they will be in charge of.  I am in charge of the Countdown round along with Michelle.  We also planned our town meeting announcement and started contacting schools and sponsors.

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 11/15/17
Today we touched upon some of the most important parts of the event organization. We finalized the Save emails sent to the invited middle schools and finalized all the math test details. In my last SL blog entry I stated that we were still struggling to finish the sponsor letter sniff organize the test, so I liked that today we finished the test and made the questions way easier than last time. That's good because as I remember, the rough draft of the test had questions that our team members could not solve in a competition. This time around, the questions wearer easier and I was able to look at all the questions on the test and know that I could solve them. My mathematical skills turned out to be a pretty good yardstick for the group, so I'm glad I could help in that way. 

Even though today was supposed to be more difficult I liked the work we did because we got a lot done and there was more interaction amongst us in order to cross taks off the board as completed. I also finished our sponsor letter so that it is ready to be sent out to the schools sometime in the future. I learned to divide my time better because we had a large block of space in the early morning and I had to manage my own time so I wouldn't get distracted, so I'm glad I got an opportunity to do that and to finish the work without pressure. Next time we all meet I will persevere more in talking to others for better communication, and also to become more involved in the math aspect of it even as I help with other organizational things.

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