Ms. Math Mania at new school

YSL.com's 2008-09 Math Mania starts this month

The 2008-09 Math Mania puzzles start this edition. We have the same Ms. Math Mania, but she's teaching at a new school.

Ms. Amy Ruzicka is now the 8th grade math teacher at the Bayless Junior High School. When she was handling the 2007-08 Math Mania series, she was a math teacher at St. Gabriel's Catholic School in south St. Louis.

Ms. Amy Ruzicka (a.k.a. "Ms. Math Mania")

Although she's at a new school, Ms. Ruzicka will be following a familiar pattern in working up the Math Mania puzzles. She will continue to provide a wide variety of puzzles to text your ability to think and reason about math.

Math Mania has been a feature of Young Saint Louis.com for several years.

The goal is to help kids to get familiar with math principles without the classroom pressure of getting good grades. Ms. Ruzicka has scoured a number of math puzzle books to find exercises that combine principles of math with fun.

Although there aren't any grades for getting the Math Mania puzzles correct, there are rewards.

As in the past, kids who get all the Math Mania puzzles correct have a chance to win a $10 Borders' gift certificate. Up to three certificates will be awarded each month.

And, at the suggestion of Ms. Ruzicka, YSL.com is going to add an incentive for your math teacher to get you to enter. Every teacher who gets some of her students to enter Math Mania will have a chance to win a $10 Borders' book certificate also.

The names of all teachers with kids entering the month's contest will have their names put in a hat and one will be picked randomly. The teacher's certificate will not be dependent on any of her students getting all the answers correct.

If you want to enter the September Math Mania contest, click here. Then fill out the entry form and mark your answers. You need to have your entries in the mail by the 15th of the month. That allows plenty of time for judges to find the winners.

The winners of this month's Math Mania will be announced in October edition. At that time, there will be a new set of Math Mania puzzles ready for you. Enjoy!!