Calculus bee seeks spectators

Think back to math class, when the teacher called students to the board to solve scary-looking calculus problems.

Spectators can relive those days at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, in 1300 Sterling Hall, when UW–Madison students go head to head during the first campuswide “Integration Bee,” a game-show- like competition that will include sound effects, pay a $100 prize and confer the title of “Grand Integrator of Madison.”

Integration is one of calculus’s basic skills. Relying on a few simple rules, engineers, physicists and biologists can turn a string of numbers and symbols into an equation to make predictions about phenomena they observe.

“One of the greatest stumbling blocks for physics students today isn’t the science, it’s the math,” notes organizer James Reardon, an outreach specialist. “We’ll make better scientists if we encourage students to learn more math.”

For information, contact Reardon, 262-2927, jcreardon@wisc.edu.