32nd Math Olympiad

Put on your thinking caps! Brush up on those calculator skills! It is that time of the year again! Math Olympiad for elementary school students in grades three through five will be held at Skyline High School on Saturday, November 15, 2008. The middle school students in grades six through eight will attend Math Olympiad at Sunset High School on Saturday, November 1, 2008. Sunset High School is the venue for the high school Math Olympiad on Saturday, October 25 for students in grades 9 through 12. Tests from prior years’ Math Olympiad competitions are available for practice. They may be found on Curriculum Central, on the Math page, under Department Resources. Click below to practice the high school tests online.

Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Grade 11
Grade 12

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Apollo! The Algebra Project
by Camille Malone, Director

Teachers and students in Algebra I will be welcomed to Apollo! The Algebra Project when school starts this year. Apollo is the new Dallas ISD innovative algebra curriculum based on the IFL Principles of Learning and current brain-learning research. Apollo is the result of intuition and research, frustration, belief, and hope.
Several years ago, while teaching calculus, I used ‘homemade’ manipulatives to illustrate the disc and washer method for integration. Many teachers knew intuitively that using manipulatives helped students understand the concepts behind the math they were learning. We have all known for several years that Algebra I, the gateway course for all higher mathematics study, could be interesting and fun, and we have yearned for a curriculum that was hands-on, with lots of tasks, and relative to what students knew. It has been frustrating to see student performance scores in algebra increase only incrementally over the years while the dropout rate continues to concern us deeply.
In 2005, with the introduction of the work of Dr. Lauren Resnick and the Institute for Learning at the University of Pittsburg, Dallas teachers were introduced to research that was very encouraging. The Principles of Learning gave words to what many teachers ‘knew’ – intelligence may be socialized, accountable talk can facilitate deep thinking, and kids can get smarter through effort. Around the same time, some of the more successful Algebra I teachers were hired as math instructional coaches to assist schools of greatest need. One day each week, they revised curriculum, making improvements, and adding math tasks and relevancy.
In spring 2008, several math department staff attended a Disciplinary Literacy Conference and learned that students in math classes should be ‘doing’ math as apprentice mathematicians. Classroom tasks should be included in rigorous lessons, and the work should be meaningful and relevant. Apollo was conceived as the curriculum program that teachers dream of….making use of motion detectors, force sensors, and remote control cars to implement fun, high thinking demand tasks with groups of students. To introduce the new curriculum, a meeting of all district Algebra I teachers, mathematics specialists, coaches, the Curriculum and Instruction and Learning Community Executive Directors, and central math department personnel was held on May 22. The response was very positive. Teachers are excited about teaching a hands-on algebra course, and the math department is excited to help make that happen. Mr. Leslie Williams gave the audience inspiring words in support of making math relative, engaging and understandable for students.
The math department is making sure that all Algebra I teachers have all the equipment and supplies they will need. In addition, the department has created an Apollo website that will post lesson power points narrated in English and Spanish, after they have been presented in class. This website will be available soon.
In order to support our Apollo Crew Captains (teachers), a calendar of ongoing after school and Saturday training sessions is included in this issue. Teachers may come any time, to as many sessions as they want, and learn to use a motion detector or smart board, or review the curriculum for the upcoming week(s). Math department personnel are a phone call away and will visit campuses for personal one-on-one assistance. Teachers will be provided plans for conducting parent nights so that kids can show their parents how to walk a graph using a motion detector, and how time motion graphs are created. We want our parents to see their successful kids having fun doing math!! Many teachers volunteered to become Test Pilots. They and their students will be video-taped “doing math” in the classroom, and their work will be placed in future CPGs and used in professional development sessions. Other teachers volunteered to be part of Mission Control, acting as a continual focus group to help us insure quality in every aspect of the program. These teachers are a very valuable part of Apollo as they contribute to the success of all students in algebra.

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