Math and Science Team

MATH/SCIENCE TEAM
Students on the HMS Math Team meet once a week after school to learn number sense shortcuts, explore material not always taught in the middle math school curriculum, and have fun “playing” with math. The team also competes in the math meets listed below.

Texas Math and Science Coaches Association (TMSCA) Competition
Held throughout the year on Saturday mornings in schools in the Metroplex. Every student on the team can take as many of the tests as they want.

Number Sense: A 10-minute, 80-question mental math test. Students learn and practice shortcuts needed to be successful on the test.

Calculator Applications: This test covers cal­culations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, di­vision, roots, powers, exponen­tial, logarithms, and some trigonometric functions. In addition to straightforward calculation problems, the contest includes geometric and stated problems similar to those found in alge­bra and geometry courses.

Mathematics: This event tests knowledge and understand­ing in the areas of sixth grade math, pre-algebra, algebra I, and basic geometry in both computational and stated problems.

Science*: This event tests concepts and scientists covered in middle school classes.

*The Math Team does not practice for this test, but most HMS students who take it do well on it because the science teachers at HMS do a great job of teaching the material in class.

UIL
This is a one-day event held on a Saturday in April in a GCISD school. The math team competes in the same events as at the TMSCA meets.

MathCounts
This is a one-day competition held at UTA on a Saturday in February. The competition permits each school to send one team of 4 members and 4 individual students not on the team. Students who qualify to be on the school team are selected after a school round test in January.

The MathCounts competition includes four rounds that cover engineering-type word problems. They are:

Sprint Round: 30 stated problems to complete in 40 minutes without using a calculator.

Target Round: 4 pairs of problems, each pair completed in 6 minutes. Calculators are permitted.

Team Round: 10 problems to complete in 20 minutes by a team of 4 students. Calculators are permitted.

Countdown Round: The top 10 scorers at the Chapter Competition compete one-on-one, answering problems that are shown a screen.