Walking four wide and five deep, over 1400 high school students took over the University of Nebraska City Campus on Thursday. There was a purpose to the crowd, though. It was UNL's 18th annual Math Day.
"It's an event that brings in all kinds of students from all areas of Nebraska to compete all day in math," said Director Lori Mueller. "But it's to enhance math, (to) make them more aware of different math, and just to do something fun."
Click here to listen to Mueller talk about UNL's 18th Math Day.
Those events included the PROBE I exam, or Problems Requiring Orginal and Brilliant Effort. The top 50 in PROBE I moved to PROBE II. The top 10 students in that exam were awarded $34,000 in 4-year scholarships to UNL.
That $340,000 might seem big of the university, but it has the potential to get much more in return.
"It's the largest recruiting tool on campus," Mueller said. "There's no other event that brings in over 1500 high school students."
John Hill brought 25 students from Elmwood-Murdock. Hill sees a possibility that other schools may want to take advantage of.
"Any young kid likes to come to a bigger place and see all the neat things that are happening to the older kids," Hill said. "I would highly recommend it for any place to get ... this mass of students. When you think about 2000 students coming to a school to take a test, how many kids go 'wow, let's take a test?'"
Click here to listen to John Hill.
Felix Harder, a German exchange student from Tri-County said he was impressed. "I really like the buildings and the area," Harder said. "It's nice." However, Harder is going back to Germany next year, so UNL might be a bit of a commute.
Click here to listen to Felix Harder.
Not all students participating are doing it for the college, or the math, for that matter. "I think it's the competition - plus the day off of school," Mueller said.
Dale Scott, in his 30th year at Coleridge High School, knows his students see the opportunity for an absence. Scott said students who take his class know they will be traveling to Lincoln. "They get out of school for the day," Scott said before a pause. "I'll go back, and say they sacrifice a day of school."
Those select students that attended UNL's Math Day for fun, were surely noticed.
"I don't really know what's going on," Meghan Thompson, a senior nutritional science major said. "Is it just going on today, or is it going on for a few days?"
Senior Trevor Snell was equally confused. "I would like to know what's going on," Snell said. "I tried getting (around) in the union. It was kind of hard; too many people."
Mueller knows the potential for congestion in the union, and for the volunteers helping during the day. "I do forewarn (volunteers) that they should not attempt to have lunch at the cafeterias because of the large number that go through there. But, I haven't heard any complaints."
Hill, who left Lincoln at 5:30 a.m. to drive to his school only to return to Lincoln, knows some of his students may be a bit mischievous. That's why he only brings the serious ones.
"Oh yeah, I don't bring kids that fool around too much," Hill said. "Although they're here to have a good time, I've never had any problems."
For those serious pupils, there was an opportunity to perform - both in the Math Bowl and the PROBE essay exams.
Click here to listen to sample question from Craig Colwell.
Craig Colwell, a member of the third place Coleridge quiz team, said a potential quiz question could be: "Out of a class of 25 students, the average weight of the boys is 160 and the average weight of the girls is 110. How many boys are in the class if (the class's) average weight is 140?" Easy enough. "Fifteen."
As for the PROBE exam, Felix Harder didn't find it quite so simple. "It was tough," Harder said. "I think I got about 40 (out of 100)." That's almost passing. "Yeah, almost."
But for teachers like John Hill, solving the problems is the best part. "Any day when you do math is a good day," Hill said.
