<p>Any one else attend ARML at UNLV(Las Vegas) on June 3? If you weren’t there - they had 350 plus students in one room(plus assorted adults) with no air conditioning from 9 a.m. until noon. These kids were competing in a math competition against kids at 2 other sites (Philadelphia & Iowa). The high temperature outside at UNLV was expected to be 102 degrees. From 9-11 was the actual competition. 11-12 was just “waiting” for the tests to be graded. They did pass out waters to the kids. But I can’t imagine that the kids in Philadelphia or Iowa were sitting a room where the temperature must have been over 100 degrees. After the site director passed out due to heat stroke (so we were told) they decided to move the awards ceremony to the dining commons where the air conditioning worked. Would you consider this to be a fair competition? </p>
<p>How would you approach those in charge of this competition. (Its a great math competition - very very challenging & I’ve always been happy to see my son competiting in ARML). </p>
<p>Another question about the competion: Awards are given at both the National Level and for the highest scoring teams at the site. The team at UNLV that scored the highest placed 6th in the Nation. They received a paper certificate & a math book of their choosing. And hardly any recognition from the announcer at awards ceremony (they almost didn’t call the team up so parents could take a team picture - parents insisted.) but the team that scored the highest at the site but did not place in the top ten nationally received a trophy, a TI calculator, & had a team photo taken with the person presenting awards(and the presenter asked them all to come up for the pictures and lots of applause). There is a chance I missed something as I had spent from 8:30 - 1 in the testing room with no air conditioning helping with the exams (passing out papers etc) and helping to clean up the room and I was exhausted by the time I got to the awards ceremony…maybe someone else that was there has a different perspective on what happened. Part of me doesn’t want to be a whiny parent but on some level it all feels like something went wrong and the kids are owed an apology for the horrible testing conditions & the team that actually was the 1st place team (the one that also placed 6th in the nation) deserves more recognition. (their team picture included a cardboard box that the books came in while the team that received the 2nd highest score but did not place in the top 10 nationally had a picture with the trophies they were given and the directors). </p>
<p>I too was at the ARML at UNLV. Speaking as a student competitor, this year’s ARML contest was the worst contest that I have ever been to in the past five years. ARML at San Jose was much better. I found it a bit silly that the ARML staff did not realize that the people should be relocated until their own staff member passed out. The man directing the individuals round (also the same guy that announced the relocation) was drenched in his own sweat, but for some reason they kept the contest going. Also, when it came to tiebreakers for those 9 individuals that scored 7/8, the staff seemed to be taunting the students that they had access to a room with air conditioning. It all sounds so unprofessional.</p>
<p>A student that was sitting next to my friend is a runner and had a watch that also recorded temperature. It was 115 F in the room where the individuals were held. During the individual round, I was spending more time drinking water and fanning myself with the clipboard (that’s right, this contest didn’t even have desks for the individual round) than doing the math problems. At many times during that round, I thought of just forfeiting my individuals score so that I could return to a place with air conditioning. </p>
<p>As to the awards ceremony, I thought that the first place site team also got trophies? But I too was also exhausted by the time they announced the awards, and so I wasn’t paying much attention.</p>
<p>The ARML is usually a great contest, but this year it certainly felt like apes and cows were directing it.</p>
<p>The ones that got trophies were the ones who actually placed second at the site they don’t count any team that places in the top ten nationally for site awards. The team that placed 6th nationally(the team with the highest score at UNLV) only received books at the awards ceremony - their coach passed out certificates later - and they had to fill in their name & team name on them. I don’t remember what happened in the B Division…I actually don’t remember any B Division team getting tophies but I too was so exhausted I don’t remember everything. </p>
<p>Yes, the clip boards instead of desks to work on is horrible. Its what they have done when then ARML is held at San Jose. I thought the other sites did the same thing (at least for the relays) but maybe someone that has been to another ARML site could let us know what is done. </p>
<p>Glad you survived, Phoenix267. I hope that you at least had fun doing the math.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the scoring system. Sounds odd to give more kudos to the second place team, if that is what happened. </p>
<p>The heat sounds just horrible–I’m really surprised. Glad my kid didn’t go to this one!</p>
<p>I think though, that you need to give your feedback–emphasizing that you think it is a great competition, but that the people in charge need to be more aware of health and safety issues.</p>
<p>I know at Penn State, we didn’t have clipboards, just boards with no clips.</p>
<p>But that’s obviously not as much as a big deal as it being 115 degrees in the room. I have no idea of how anyone could work in those conditions.</p>
<p>I just heard from one of the coaches that the Taiwan and Phillipines teams all scored exceptionally well on the individual and relay rounds which were the tests that took place in the 115 degree heat. Just thought it was interesting.</p>
<p>The scores are up on the ARML website. SFBay Area A team: 169 points. They received “6th place nationally” & team members received a book. Washington Gold: 161 points. They were awarded the “1st place Western Region” or site award & trophies, calculators and lots of attention from the award presenter. This just doesn’t seem right. Grr.</p>
<p>There’s much less use of airconditioning in Asia, so the Taiwanese and Filipino students were probably more comfortable in the heat than American ones.</p>
<p>Could you and others write to the AMRL organizers to protest, focusing particularly on the conditions in which the event took place?</p>