Math Day Contest | Washburn University

The 2024 Math Day will be on Tuesday, November 12

Math Day is a Washburn tradition dating back to 1969. On a Tuesday in November each year, high school students from all over northeast Kansas come to Washburn to compete in a 40-question competitive mathematics exam. Teachers accompanying the students have a discussion of current issues of importance to mathematics educators and/or participate in activities ready for the mathematics classroom.

After lunch is served, students from each school work as a team to try to win the "Mathnificent Race". This competition, introduced at the 2013 Math Day, includes a scavenger hunt on the Washburn University campus for information required to solve a sequence of problems as quickly as possible. The first team to finish wins a plaque, but every team that completes all of the problems correctly wins a small prize.

In the afternoon, there is an awards ceremony honoring the students’ achievements. The top three individual scorers in the senior and non-senior categories all receive medals, and the top three scorers from each school receive ribbons. Plaques are awarded to top teams and to the top overall scorer. To add to the fun, there are also door-prize drawings for both the students and the teachers, with mathematically-oriented prizes.