Date posted: 10/13/2009*

Today, the Raytheon MATHCOUNTS 2009 national champions were special guests at the unveiling of an interactive, math-based experience called Sum of all Thrills™ at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort.

At this year’s MATHCOUNTS National Competition, which Raytheon will serve as the title sponsor through 2011, the team from Texas captured the national title and included Mathletes®, Bobby Shen, who was also this year’s individual champion, Yury Aglyamov, Steven Chen, Lilly Shen and team coach Jeff Boyd. Max Schindler of St. Louis, Mo., the Masters Round champion, also attended the ceremony and was among one of the first park guests to experience Sum of all Thrills™.

The exhibit will engage young students through a fun and educational experience and will help instill in them a lifelong passion for math, science and technology. As this year’s Raytheon MATHCOUNTS national champions, each Mathlete® received a four-day, three-night trip for four to Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The young students were also treated to a “meet and greet” with a Disney Imagineer and received a four-day admission ticket to all the Disney theme parks.

“It is an honor for the Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition winners to be here today and be asked to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Sum of all Thrills™,” said Lou DiGioia, executive director of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. “We’re proud to work with Raytheon as title sponsor of MATHCOUNTS. The company's commitment to engaging and inspiring today's youth to be tomorrow's innovators aligns with the MATHCOUNTS mission of inspiring mathematical excellence in middle school students.”

Sum of all Thrills™ is a core component of Raytheon’s MathMovesU program, an initiative designed to engage middle school students in math and science while helping to create the next generation of innovators for the U.S. It will be located in the INNOVENTIONS pavilion at Epcot®, a unique area of the park that contains 100,000 square feet of interactive, hands-on exhibits that allow visitors to celebrate the inspiration and innovation that improve their lives and expand their horizons.

About MATHCOUNTS

MATHCOUNTS is America's only nationwide enrichment, club and competition program that motivates and rewards middle school students for math achievement.

The mission is to secure America's global competitiveness, MATHCOUNTS inspires excellence, confidence and curiosity in U.S. middle school students through fun and challenging math programs.

  • Celebrating its 27th anniversary, over 6 million students have developed critical-thinking and problem-solving skills through participating in MATHCOUNTS.
  • Over 100,000 students in more than 6,000 schools register annually to compete in the MATHCOUNTS Competition Program.
  • MATHCOUNTS currently distributes program information, curriculum, and materials to over 48,000 middle schools.
  • A 501(c)(3) organization, funding for MATHCOUNTS comes primarily from its National Sponsors; Raytheon Company, National Defense Education Program, Northrop Grumman Foundation, National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation, ConocoPhillips, Pitsco Education, Texas Instruments Incorporated, and 3M Foundation. MATHCOUNTS was founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

About MathMovesU

MathMovesU, launched in 2005, has touched the lives of more than 1 million students, teachers, and parents. Raytheon is committed to raising awareness of the nation’s current decline of math and science skills in today’s youth and believes that tomorrow’s innovators need to be excited by and interested in math today. Through interactive learning programs, contests, live events, scholarships, tutoring programs and more, MathMovesU engages and inspires students. Core components of the program include:

  • An innovative approach to engaging students in math and science through a partnership with the Kraft family and The New England Patriots at The Hall at Patriot Place Presented by Raytheon;
  • MathMovesU.com, a virtual space to educate and entertain middle school students through games and activities that showcase the math behind students’ favorite pastimes;
  • A scholarship and grants program that awards $1 million annually to students, teachers and schools.

Learn more about the MathMovesU program.

About INNOVENTIONS at Epcot®

INNOVENTIONS is located in the heart of Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Creativity and imagination abound as guests celebrate inspiration and the innovations that improve their lives and expand their horizons. Hands-on, interactive exhibits allow children and adults to be immersed into ideas that inform, entertain and inspire.

Learn more about INNOVENTIONS.

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