Math, math, math
Image: Dimitris Agelakis via Flickr
Moody’s Math Challenge (M3) is a scholarship competition that “spotlights applied mathematics as a powerful problem-solving tool, as a viable and exciting profession, and as a vital contributor to advances in an increasingly technical society.” Boasting a total scholarship prize pool of $115,000, M3 offers high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to compete in teams of three to five for a chance at a prize.
Students are given fourteen hours and “an open-ended, realistic, applied math-modeling problem focused on a real-world issue.” Entirely Internet based, each team works collaboratively to solve the problem within the fourteen hours. Free public resources are available for use, but students cannot discuss the M3 Challenge problem with or seek help from anyone other than their teammates.
Originally exclusively available in the New York City Metropolitan area, Moody’s Math Challenge is now available to high schools in 40 states in the across the country, as well as the District of Columbia. By 2016, it should be available to all high schools in the nation.
Each participating high school can enter up to two teams in the M3 Challenge. Registration and participation are free. In the past several years, Moody’s Math Challenge has been the proud recipient of many prestigious awards and recognitions:
- 2012-2013 National Association of Secondary School Principals’ National Advisory List of Student Contests & Activities
- 2012 Graphic Design USA’s American Inhouse Design Award (public service creative)
- 2010 Graphic Design USA’s American Inhouse Design Award (internet design)
- 2009 ASAU Association’s Advance America (AAA) Award of Excellence
- 2008 Excellence Award Committee Encouraging Philanthropy (CECP)
- 2006 Graphic Design USA’s American Inhouse Design Award (print creative)
