Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Before the one-day holiday some of the college math teachers and the Executive Vice President, who is a member of the organizing local Rotary Club chapter, talked about the second annual rendition of our Whiz of the South contest for early next year.

Some proposed changes from last year are as follows: first, it will now just be a mathematics competition, instead of being one for math and one for science. In other words, since it really is difficult to determine who could be considered as a stand out champion for several disciplines under one heading (the memorization needed for the terms in biology, the equation balancing needed for chemistry and so on) as shown by the results last time, and the fact that the winner did not use the scholarship she was awarded, because she (or her parents) decided on a liberal arts or a business course for her.

Maybe if the science part could be made more comprehensive, it would work better.

Another change is making the finals on the afternoon with the written sit-down elimination round in the morning. A consequence of this is that the students would not have the time to prepare for the unexpected questions in the eliminations test, as we did last year having the finals two weeks after the first one.

The need for the theatrics of the contestants raising their answers and seen by all at the same time was brought up, but at the same time also the need for the documentation of everyone's answers (especially with "half a million" in prizes at stake) in the face of possible protests. So we will not be having a small whiteboard or chalk board anymore, but the students will write their answers on paper to be collected after each question, to be filed afterwards. The question still remains though, how much of the students' concentration is taken away by the smell of the thick markers used?

There was also the issue of whether the categories of the coverage will be given to the students and their coaches, or if the standard department of education third year and fourth year high school student required curriculum would be assumed.

There is also a plan to give a cash prize to the coach, so that they would be more inclined to let their students join in the subsequent years.

Session 1383 did not know what to study. Class dismissed.