We have a wonderful math program here at Fountain Hills High School. We're proud of our students and teachers, and would like to share some of their accomplishments with you.

Math Team Places Second at ASU Competition

The AP Calculus BC students went to a Mathleague competition at ASU. The competition consisted of 6 rounds:

• One 60 minute individual exam
• Four 10 minute (two questions) rounds
• One Team Round --- the team consisted of 6 students each
• One Relay Round --- team of 3, each getting a part of the question, then having to piece it together to solve it.

The students did well. As a team we received 2nd place and 2 students qualified for the Mathleague State competition in April. The students who qualified for state are Jeffrey Lau and Sarah Snook. The students all said they enjoyed the day!

Cristine Barsema, the team coach, teaches AP Calculus BC, Precalculus, and Alg1 Concepts at Fountain Hills High.

Fountain Hills Competes in Scottsdale Community College's Math Science Field Day 2010

This year was a hard fought competition at the Math Science Field Day sponsored by Scottsdale Community College (SCC). The event was January 13th at SCC. Fifteen teams from nine high schools came to compete this year. Those competing from fountain Hills were:

Algebra II/Geometry Andrew Taggart Allyssa Lombari Matt Vezey

Pre-calculus Vicky Macaluso Chrissy Muller Alex Ezell

Calculus Shelby Stockton Laura Yalim Ashley Balcerzak

Science Competitors Alex Moser Aryana Naghipour Hellie Howard Craig Goodall Jeffery Lau Alex Forehand

Project Team Mario Ziccarelli Haley Montanez Colin McWilliams

These students did well in all categories but Fountain Hills did not collect enough total points to be in the final rounds. Scottsdale Community College, where this event this held each year, will announce the overall scores soon.

One award achieved this year was Ashley Balcerzak who won over all math score for Fountain Hills High School.

The project this year was a mousetrap car. The springing mousetrap would provide the drive to send the car far down the track. The track was 50 feet long. Each school's project team received a partially built mousetrap car. The team determined what kind of wheels, weight, length of the lever arm and torque issues to make their car go a long distance and to go that distance the fastest. The competition is based on which car travels the farthest and fastest.

The vast majority of cars went only partially down the track due to mechanical problems and parts problems.

We are proud of these students and their achievements.

The coaches this year were Ms. Barsema and Dr. McElligott.

New Engineering Course Offered at FHHS

The following course has been board approved to start this fall at Fountain Hills High School:

Engineering Analysis Tools and Techniques
This course is equivalent to EGR 102 at the Maricopa College system and EGR 101 at Arizona State University. The course will begin in the fall of 2010 and receive three credits of university engineering. It will run for two semesters at the high school. We will be only one of two high schools in the valley that co-enrolls engineering in ASU’s Collegiate Scholars program.

The general course description appears as follows in our course catalogue: “Learning culture or engineering use or computer tools and computer modeling as applied to engineering analysis and design. The prerequisites include two years of high school algebra (Algebra II) or MAT133 (community college level) or departmental approval.” The candidate should have a good science track record including: physics, biology, and/or Chemistry.

The ASU description includes:
“EGR 101 - Introduction to Engineering Design I :
Introduces engineering as a profession, critical thinking in engineering design and modeling, team dynamics, engineering communication.”

If the student and parents consider enrolling their student in the course and co-enroll at ASU, the student will be already be an accepted ASU student with a student ID, full student privileges to the ASU facilities, library and lab as well be earning three of their science/engineering credits. The tuition and fees for the course will be discussed at an upcoming meeting in January with Students and a slightly later meeting for parents. Scholarships may be available from ASU and from Fountain Hills organizations.

The course will examine the basic aspects of engineering including the types of engineering, design, materials, project-based systems etc. The course will be project based including using computer design software such as “Solid Works” one of the industry standards in design. They will also work on robots applications, rocketry, and propulsion. The class in addition is invited to the ASU rocketry competition as well as a robotics competition. Dr. Chell Roberts who is head of the Poly Tech East Campus Engineering program has invited us to use their labs for the more sophisticated laboratories.

Dr. Paul McElligott, who will be the lead instructor for the course, received the certification to teach this course from ASU engineering. In addition, Dr. McElligott has asked several local prominent engineers act as special instructors from time to time.

This course will give high school students a fourth year of science (required by colleges) or math elective. Four years of math are required and this course is a wonderful applied math opportunity. In addition, it gives students an additional fourth year offering in science beyond AP Biology, Physics, and Chemistry.

We are very excited to offer this opportunity for students to explore engineering without leaving the high school campus.