Field Day Mathematics
Join us for 蜜桃传媒's 38th Annual Mathematics Field Day!
February 13, 2027
蜜桃传媒鈥檚 annual Mathematics Field Day brings together talented high school students from across Southern California for a day of friendly competition, creative problem-solving and mathematical discovery. Featuring team exams, the fast-paced College Bowl, student presentations and an awards banquet, this exciting event celebrates the power of mathematics, collaboration and a love of learning.
For more information, contact the event coordinator, Anna Aboud, at aaboud@westmont.edu.
Schedule and Map
| Event & Grade Levels | Time | Location |
| Registration | 11:30鈥12:30 p.m. | Winter Hall Main Entrance and Lawn |
| Welcome | 12:30-12:55 p.m. | Winter Hall Room 210 |
| College Bowl Prelims (11-12) Chalk Talk Prelims ( 11-12) Team Exam (9-10) |
1:00鈥2:15 p.m. | Winter Hall Rooms 106, 110, 210, 212, 216 Winter Hall Rooms 311, 321 Winter Hall Room 206 |
| Break & Snacks | 2:15-2:45 p.m. | Winter Hall Main Entrance and Lawn |
| College Bowl Prelims (9-10) Team Exam (11-12) |
2:45鈥4:00 p.m. | Winter Hall Rooms 106, 110, 210, 212, 216 Winter Hall Room 206 |
| Chalk Talk Final College Bowl Final (9-10) College Bowl Final (11-12) |
4:15鈥5:30 p.m. | Winter Hall Room 210 |
| Awards Banquet | 5:45鈥7:00 p.m. | Global Leadership Center |
Events
Communication is an important part of mathematics, so it is appropriate that our Mathematics Field Day has an event like this one. Each school selects a student to prepare a 10鈥12 minute talk based on a topic announced well in advance. During preliminary rounds a panel of judges collaborates to determine two finalists, who then redo their presentations before a larger audience and a different set of judges. The topic for 2006 was Polyhedra. Pictured above is the winner for that year, Sue Lin of Dos Pueblos.
Chalk Talk Evaluation Criteria
The evaluation form used by the panel of judges is given below. Generally, the first three categories deal with the style of the talk, while the last three deal with the content.
The talk should last between 10 and 12 minutes. It is up to the student to create a presentation that is well-organized, sufficiently in depth, and focused. In the past, some students have given talks that the students themselves did not completely understand, and the judges counted this against them. In other words, it is important that the person speaking have a good grasp of the subject. A flashy Power Point presentation without good understanding does not make for a winning formula.
The person giving a talk should rehearse it beforehand so that it flows smoothly and is within the 10鈥12 minute time requirement. Normally the presenter is on the 11th鈥12th grade team, but this guideline is not mandatory. We hope that this event will be viewed as an opportunity for learning by all the students, regardless of whether they are the presenters. It should also be a lot of fun!
Chalk Talk Evaluation Form
Name:_________________________________________________
School:________________________________________________
CATEGORIES: (Rank Each on a Scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being best)
_____ 1. Clarity of presentation
_____ 2. Use of visual aids
_____ 3. Delivery (including time)
_____ 4. Focus of topic
_____ 5. Depth of topic
_____ 6. Grasp of / correctness of mathematics
_____ TOTAL
The 鈥淐ollege Bowl鈥 consists of preliminary and final rounds. Teams from various schools compete against one another in several preliminaries, which the above photo illustrates. The two schools with the highest combined scores then advance to the final round to determine the overall winner. Modeled after the College Bowl TV show, students work individually in an attempt to be the first to answer a series of short questions. After each such question the team of the student who answered correctly gets dibs at solving a more difficult follow-up problem. The other team simultaneously works on the same problem, and will be given a chance to answer if the original team provides an incorrect solution.
A review of the leading journals reveals that mathematical discovery is a team effort: research articles frequently have more than one author. The purpose of the team exam is to challenge students to think creatively, and to encourage mathematical collaboration. Given a set of five problems, the students must decide how to tackle them. As the above photo shows, the best strategy appears to be some combination of individual and collective effort.
Team Exam Instructions
The following instructions are given to students before they begin their team exam.
Put the name of your school in the space above each answer sheet.
Calculators are not permitted during this exam.
This is a team exam. There are only five questions, so your team will be graded both on the accuracy of your answer and the clarity with which you express your answer. Turn in only one solution per problem per team. Work each problem out on scratch paper at first, then copy the solution you want graded to the space provided below the corresponding question, making sure your writing is legible and coherent. Be sure you justify your answer rather than merely state what the answer is. Use the back of the paper if you run out of room. When time is up, assemble your answers in order and give them to the exam proctor.
蜜桃传媒鈥檚 Mathematics Field Day concludes with an awards banquet. Its purpose is to encourage the students attending to continue their excellent academic work鈥攅specially in mathematics. The evening includes dinner, presentation of awards for each event, and a short lecture by a guest speaker. Parents are welcome to attend the banquet at a cost of $25 per person. There is no cost for students and teachers beyond the school registration fee.
Recent Past Speakers:
Manuel Reyes, Mathematics Professor at the University of California Irvine
Alphan Altinok, Lead Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab
Eric Lucero, Site Lead at Google Quantum AI in Santa Barbara
Russell Howell, Mathematics Professor at 蜜桃传媒
Alan Rose, Chief Meteorologist at KEYT News
Photos & Results
2025鈥36th Annual Field Day Shirt Design
2024鈥35th Annual Field Day Shirt Design
2023鈥34th Annual Field Day Shirt Design
2022鈥33rd Annual Field Day
A recursive program that solves the 鈥淭ower of Hanoi鈥 puzzle with 鈥3鈫3鈥 disks.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
Chalk Talk First Place: Ethan Bergman (Oaks Christian)
Chalk Talk Second Place: Rory Zhang (Cate)
College Bowl First Place, Grades 9鈥10: La Ca帽ada
College Bowl First Place, Grades 11鈥12: La Ca帽ada
Team Exam First Place [tie], Grades 9-10: Dos Pueblos
Team Exam First Place [tie], Grades 9-10: La Ca帽ada
Team Exam First Place, Grades 11鈥12: Dos Pueblos
School Winner Grades 9鈥10: La Ca帽ada
School Winner, Grades 11鈥12: La Ca帽ada
2020鈥32nd Annual Field Day
A five-dimensional hypercube with 32 vertices.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
Chalk Talk First Place: Derek Ahn (La Ca帽ada, center) Chalk Talk Second Place (tie): Andy Qin (Dos Pueblos); Wendy Cao (Oaks Christian)
College Bowl First Place, Grades 9鈥10: Thacher
College Bowl First Place, Grades 11鈥12: La Ca帽ada
Team Exam First Place, Grades 9鈥10: La Ca帽ada
Team Exam First Place, Grades 11鈥12: Oaks Christian
School Winner, Grades 9鈥10: La Ca帽ada
School Winner, Grades 11鈥12: La Ca帽ada
2019鈥31st Annual Field Day
31 is a Mersenne Prime. As of February 2019 only 51 Mersenne primes had been discovered.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
College Bowl First Place, Grades 9鈥10: Dos Pueblos
College Bowl First Place, Grades 11鈥12: Dos Pueblos
2018鈥30th Annual Field Day
30 is a square pyramidal number: it is the sum of the first four squares.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
2017鈥29th Annual Field Day
Maximum number of pieces when cutting a pizza 7 times = 29.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
2016鈥28th Annual Field Day
Euclid鈥檚 Proposition IX.36, with n=3, implies that 28 is a perfect number.
For a more detailed explanation of the T-shirt, click here.
2014鈥27th Annual Field Day
A cube (volume = 27) progresses towards a Menger sponge (fractal dimension 鈮 2.7).
2013鈥26th Annual Field Day
Front: a net for a rhombicuboctahedron.
Back: a rhombicuboctahedron with its 26 faces.
2012鈥25th Annual Field Day
Prime factorization reveals that only perfect squares have an odd number of factors.
2011鈥24th Annual Field Day
A Cayley graph depicting 伪 and 尾 as generators of S4, which has 24 elements.
2010鈥23rd Annual Field Day
Relation between 23, e, and 蟺, and a skeletal proof showing why 蟺e < e蟺.
Award presented by Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider
Award presented by Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider
Anthony Granatelli, Vy-Luan Huynh, Daniel Richman, Daniel Gay
With coach Travis Bower and Mayor Helene Schneider
Amy Ransohoff, Johnny Manzo, Daniel Peterson, Matt Welsh
With coach George Egbert and Mayor Helene Schneider
Nic Mon, Ben Helkey (not shown: Andre Kohansamad, Michael Winnewisser)
With coach Michael Fay and Mayor Helene Schneider
Scott Lee, Jina Yun, Trevor Mulchay, Richy Yun
With coach Kurt Meyer and Mayor Helene Schneider
Josh Cho, SoHyun Park, Lucy Han, Sarah Cresto
With coach Kurt Meyer and professor Russell Howell
Scott Lee, Jina Yun, Richy Yun, Trevor Mulchay
With coach Kurt Meyer and Mayor Helene Schneider
2009鈥22nd Annual Field Day
Maximum number of pieces when cutting a pizza 6 times = 22.
First Place (left): Nicholas Su (Dos Pueblos)
Second Place (right): Ken Myers (Santa Barbara)
Dos Pueblos team with coach Travis Bower
Cate team with coach Frank Griffin
Dos Pueblos team with coach Travis Bower
Team Exam First Place, Grades 11鈥12
Dos Pueblos team with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos teams with coach Travis Bower
2008鈥21st Annual Field Day
Binet鈥檚 formula for Fibonacci numbers gives F8 = 21.
With President Gayle Beebe
With President Gayle Beebe
With coach Frank Meyer and President Gayle Beebe
With coach Rob Helms and President Gayle Beebe
With coach Travis Bower and President Gayle Beebe
With coach Travis Bower and President Gayle Beebe
With coach Frank Meyer and President Gayle Beebe
With coach Rob Helms and President Gayle Beebe
2006鈥19th Annual Field Day
Front: a net for an icosahedron.
Back: an icosahedron and a formula for its volume.
With coach Travis Bower and Mayor Marty Blum
Award accepted by coach George Egbert with Mayor Marty Blum
With coach Travis Bower and Mayor Marty Blum
With coach Lisa Reed and Mayor Marty Blum
With coach Travis Bower and Mayor Marty Blum
With coach Janet Fredrickson and Mayor Marty Blum
With coach Travis Bower and Mayor Marty Blum
With Coach Travis Bower and Mayor Marty Blum
2005鈥19th Annual Field Day
Front: a design illustrating that 19 is a hexagonal number.
Back: a formula for Hn, the nth hexagonal number, with H2 = 19.
Dan Silverman (Santa Barbara), with coach Rob Helms
Laura Fredrickson (Oaks Christian), with coach Janet Fredrickson
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Cate, with coach Frank Griffin
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos, with Coach Travis Bower
2004鈥18th Annual Field Day
A Celtic knot with 18 crossings.
Sue Lin (Dos Pueblos), with coach Travis Bower
Quinn Scripter (Crescenta Valley), with coach Lisa Reed
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Cate, with coach Frank Griffin
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Dos Pueblos, with coach Travis Bower
Crescenta Valley, with coach David Platt
Dos Pueblos, with Coach Travis Bower
Thacher, with coach Dan Henry
2003鈥17th Annual Field Day
Gauss鈥 construction of a regular 17-gong.
San Marcos
Crescenta Valley, with coach Lisa Reed
San Marcos, with coach George Egbert
San Marcos, with coach George Egbert
San Marcos, with coach George Egbert
San Marcos, with coach George Egbert
2002鈥16th Annual Field Day
A hypercube with its 16 vertices.
2001鈥15th Annual Field Day
A combinatorial identity.
