InformationIf you would like to learn more about the Martin Luther College Meet Math program, or if you have just stumbled onto this site and are wondering why it is here, this is the right place to be. If you would like to know more about the history of the Meet Math program go here. If you would like to know more about the history of this web site go here. The History of the Meet Math ProgramMeet Math is a service club at Martin Luther College that provides mathematics contests for students in grades 5-12 who are enrolled in WELS or ELS schools. This club also maintains school and individual statistics that are the basis for various awards presented at the end of the school year. Meet Math was organized during the 1983-84 school year by a group of about 25 students and their advisor Prof. David Pelzl. The group explored various alternatives for the organization, and eventually developed objectives and a constitution. One of the first things the group did was sponsor a contest for determining the title for the organization. In the 1984-85 school year, 5 contests were held for high schools and elementary schools. At the same time, an "art" contest was held in March for all schools who were participating in Meet Math contests. This contest provided the first Meet Math logo, which had Meet Math superimposed on the school name DMLC. In the spring of 1995, a second logo contest was held, this time to replace the outdated DMLC logo with one including the name of the new college, MLC. Over the years, the high school contests were held for 9th and 10th graders, and for students who were in mathematics beyond Geometry. At one time a handicap system was used to give all schools an equal opportunity to "compete" with other schools. More recently, each of the high school levels was divided into large school-small school categories. Participation by high schools varies by the levels, but typically at least 16 Lutheran high schools participate in both divisions. From the very beginning, the elementary school divisions have been based on enrollment. In the first year there were 5 divisions at the 7th and 8th grade levels, and more recently there were 6 divisions at both the 5th and 6th grade levels, and the 7th and 8th grade levels. In the 1999-2000 school year, the number of divisions was increased to 8 at each level. Several years ago, individuals were permitted to participate if they attended schools that were too small to meet a minimum enrollment of 4 students. Participation among Lutheran grade schools has increased from about 120 schools in the first years to the present 230 schools. Most schools participate at both grade levels. In the 15 years of contests, the members of Meet Math have produced well over 300 problem sets and more than 1500 published problems for students to solve. This does not count the more than 3000 problems that were written but never published. For those students who live in the right location, it is conceivable that some of them have had the chance to solve as many as 50 Meet Math problems, and teachers themselves may have solved as many as 150 Meet Math problems. Conservatively estimating the participation in Meet Math, some 7000 students and at least 300 teachers have been touched by Meet Math each year. How does one become a participating school? Each September a registration form is sent to all Lutheran grade schools and high schools of the WELS and ELS with an invitation to participate. Cost is minimal, and covers the postage and awards that are sent at the end of the year. If your school does not receive a registration form, contact this website.
History of this Web SiteThe Meet Math Web Site has been in existence for about a year and a half now. It has been just within this last year that it has developed into my original vision for a Meet Math web site. There were two main features that I wanted to incorporate into this site. The first was the ability for the viewer to access the Meet Math results which had been entered into a Microsoft Access database. This I was able to accomplish using FrontPage2000's Database Results component, along with a lot of extra tweaking. The second feature I wanted to incorporate into the web site was the ability to submit scores online. This kept me stumped for quite a while and was not helped by the interruptions of college life and student teaching. It all fell into place, however, when I discovered the wonders of Active Server Pages (ASP). I am sure that anyone with minimal programming experience would quickly pick up the ins and outs of Active Server Pages, given some spare time and a good ASP text. The flexibility they allow, especially for database access, really allows for lots of amazing things on a web site. Since I am a 5th year senior now at MLC and will be graduating and accepting a call in May, I will not be able to continue to experiment too much with this site. Hopefully, however, it can be passed on and continue to be used for viewing and submitting results (that is if this last test works out well). If anyone is interested in learning a little more about how this site was made, I would be happy to try and share the little bit of knowledge I have accumulated. In addition, if you have any bits of information for me, such as obvious mistakes or helpful hints, I would be glad to hear them. Daniel Nolte, 2001
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