Students from the Harding University Department of Mathematics competed at the regional meeting of the Mathematics Association of America April 1-3, winning two events for the first time.
Students representing the Harding University Math Club and the math department took first place in Math Jeopardy and first and second place in the Integration Bee, beating students from universities like Oklahoma State University and University of Oklahoma. Math Jeopardy is a team event featuring questions from various areas of mathematics. The Integration Bee, similar to a spelling bee, quizzes 70 to 80 participants with calculus problems until only the winners remain.
Dr. Ron Smith, chair of the department of mathematics, said that students have been participating for more than five years and are often beaten by universities with larger math departments. Smith said he was pleased with how the students represented the University.
“It is exciting when a small school can compete with the big ones,” Smith said. “It shows that our students are able to perform very well when compared to students from any school in Oklahoma or Arkansas. I am very proud of our students.”
Harding is the largest private university in Arkansas and has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report for the 22nd consecutive year as a top 25 school in the South. Harding also maintains study abroad programs in Australia, Chile, England, France, Greece, Italy and Zambia. For more information visit www.harding.edu.
