To help us celebrate the first official UNESCO International Day of Mathematics, we’re winding the clock back to 1978 and reflecting on the origin of Australia’s leading mathematics competition.
The 1978 Intermediate paper will be in the Sandpit all week long for you to have a go at and enjoy!
From its first year, the Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) has brought challenge, inspiration and fun to millions of Australian students. As UNESCO has officially announced an International Day of Mathematics (IDM), it is timely to celebrate in mathematics, and for us to take some time out of our days to challenge and inspire ourselves with this beautiful subject.
To help celebrate the first official IDM, we’re going all the way back to our very first official AMC.
We invite you to enjoy our 1978 Intermediate paper – answer a couple problems, or sit down and try the whole thing! Maybe your teachers or parents sat this paper – wouldn’t be interesting to see how they go with it now?
Although a lot has changed in the world since 1978, you’ll see that our love for creating and sharing problems hasn’t changed one bit.
We’ve also included some quotes and reflections from those inspirational individuals who were involved with the AMC right from the beginning. I’m sure you’ll enjoy their reflections and perspectives on this amazing competition.
Enjoy!
John Bament, current Chair, AMF Committee
The pioneers
Peter O’Halloran, inaugural AMT Executive Director
– from his preface to the 1978 Australian Mathematics Competition Solutions and Statistics book
‘A good problem, like the acorn, has in it the potential for grand development.’
These words were written by the late Professor Charles Salkind, Chairman of the Committee for the USA High School Contests from 1961 – 1965. . . The words certainly reflect the philosophy of the committee for the Australian Mathematics Competition. The aims of the Competition include the creation of interest in the study of mathematics, the encouragement of excellence and the recognition of students who demonstrate competence in the basic skill areas of mathematics.
The first committee
Warren Atkins, inaugural AMC Problems Committee Chair 1978, former AMF Chair
From the 1976 High School Mathematics Competition for the Burroughs Medal, ACT Region, and 1977 High School Mathematics Competition for the Burroughs Medal, Australia-wide, both single papers of 40 questions, came the national Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) for the Wales awards in 1978. There were around 60,000 participants. The AMC consisted of three papers of 30 questions in three divisions: Junior, Intermediate and Senior, as it is today. The very first (1976) paper was developed over a couple of days starting in my lounge room. For the first AMC paper (1978) the Problems Committee consisted of six mathematicians from CCAE, ANU, Sydney University and the ACT Teaching Service, with two very critical moderators from ANU and Sydney Uni. The AMC was developed with the belief that such an activity leading to mathematical enrichment in the schools, with the provision of enrichment materials for the teachers, had to be a good thing as there was generally not much available in the way of enrichment materials and activities for teachers at that time. It may sound odd, but the problems committee members actually enjoy sitting in a room with no windows for two days discussing mathematical problems!
Now the committee consists of teachers from around Australia, university mathematicians and usually overseas guests from similar competitions in other countries. The AMC also moved into the primary arena in 2002 with two papers, one for years 3 and 4, the other for years 5 and 6. The papers now take over a year to develop with all the levels of moderation and checking, including translation into other languages for a number of countries in the region. (An interesting example of translation: some years ago there was a logic question with kangaroos, who told the truth, and frogs, which told lies. In the French translation the roles were interchanged, kangaroos told lies and the frogs told the truth!)
In 1978 the AMC was one of the first, if not the first, extra-curriculum activity for high schools in Australia. Now the AMC is under the umbrella of the Australian Mathematics Trust, which hosts a myriad of mathematical activities from the AMC through to the International Mathematics Olympiad. It should be noted here that the enthusiasm and drive of one person in particular, Peter O’Halloran from the CCAE, was paramount to the success of the AMC and also the AMT.
In 2020, as was the case in 1978, the process continues with the help of a large number of dedicated volunteers from all around the country.
There are still a few people still involved, including myself from 1978 till 2020 (one year missing from 1979 as I was overseas on study leave), Martin Ward, who was on the first Burroughs competition in 1976 and still on the AMC Secondary Problems Committee), Bruce Henry, the first Victorian State Director, who is still on the Challenge Committee (which he started), and Peter Brown as a long-time (very critical and important) moderator.
Peter Taylor, AMC Problems Committee member 1978, former Executive Director of AMT
In April 1976 colleagues of mine from CCAE and other teachers in Canberra had a meeting and decided to hold a mathematics competition in Canberra. It was so successful that all schools entered, with over 1300 students and we decided there was wider appeal. In 1977 we ran a pilot scheme to enter schools from elsewhere in Australia and we had approximately 4500 entries. We had developed a system of extensive moderation, and this gave schools the sense of a quality product.
In 1978 we ran the first truly national competition, known as the Australian Mathematics Competition. We were very excited to receive 60,000 entries, which we were able to mark by computer, and from there on the competition grew rapidly and spread to other countries.
Bill Akhurst, NSW AMC State Director 1978– 2017
My involvement in the AMC began at an AAMT Biennial Conference in Melbourne where Peter O’Halloran was giving a session on his proposal to launch a national mathematics competition. One of Peter’s selling points was that just as sport competition brings out the best in athletes, why not encourage mathematics performance similarly? Details of how the competition would be managed were spelt out convincingly but I was initially dubious. Then he added that a further aim was the development a bank of high-quality maths problems on which teachers could draw to enthuse their students.
I was sold! As a young teacher I had been desperately looking for years for such a ready source of material to extend the mathematical reach of all students. I volunteered on the spot as the contact person for NSW, subsequently became the NSW Director for the AMC and entered on a 40-year-plus engagement in what became the Australian Mathematics Trust.
The mushroom growth of the competition in the early years was astonishing. There had been nothing like it previously in Australia. The scope and quality of the material provided by volunteers from all levels of mathematics education was amazing. After the pilot scheme which involved about 600 students from invited schools, the number of entrants grew ten-fold in the following year when the AMC went national. The early years of the competition became some of the most professionally exciting of my teaching career, enough to ensure my continuing involvement in the decades which followed.
Bruce Henry, VIC AMC State Director 1978–2015
I found myself in a session at a MAV conference in a room with the three Peters – O’Halloran, Taylor, Brown – who told us all about the AMC and its first run in the ACT in 1975. They were looking for volunteers to be state directors as they expanded the competition to be nationwide. I looked around the room and could only see one other Victorian, so I volunteered. That was the start of a long association with the AMC.
Back then, as State Director, I fielded a lot of phone calls from schools with queries, and a lot from schools looking for the papers which had not arrived, or they needed to enter more students. This meant that I had to send out more papers or, if the AMC was only a day or so away, delivering them by hand. Once I met a teacher in a supermarket car park that was half-way between him and me!
I was reprimanded by some of my friends for being involved in ‘this elitist competition’. They have since apologised, but it was not the done thing in Victoria at that time. I have made many new friends through my association with the AMC and there have been many enjoyable experiences.