Integration Bee

The 2024 High School Integration Bee is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23! 

Registration is now open for the 2024 Integration bee.

An Integration Bee is like a spelling bee but competitors do a type of calculus problem by finding definite and indefinite integrals. 

Questions? Contact Dr. Stacey Muir (stacey.muir@scranton.edu).

2024 Integration Bee Tentative Schedule

The Bee will be held in the DeNaples Centers Ballroom (fourth floor). For directions and information on parking, click here for campus map.

4:15 – 4:30 pm
Sign in
4:30 – 4:45 pm
Review of rules
4:45 – 5:25 pm
First Round: Definite Integration Competition
5:25 – 6:00 pm
Dinner
5:45 – 6:00 pm
Raffle prizes and certificates of participation will be awarded
6:00 – 7:30 pm
Final Round: Indefinite Integration Bee  

Registration

We can accommodate approximately 100 total competitors. The registration can be completed using this registration form. Registration is required and is on a first-come-first-serve basis. That said, if you are registering a group of students, we kindly ask that you register no more than 20 students prior to Wednesday, April 6 so that students from multiple schools can participate. After that date, if there is still room, feel free to register as many more as we have room for through Friday, April 12! If at any point we get 100 registrants, we will begin a waitlist. Contact Dr. Stacey Muir if you need to cancel your registration.

Please be aware  if you are under the age of 18 at the time of the competition on April 23, 2024,  you  must  be accompanied by a parent, guardian, or faculty chaperone. Additionally, you will need to provide the name and email of the person accompanying you to complete your registration. A guardian, parent, or faculty member may chaperone more than one student. 

School vans and other passenger vehicles can be accommodated.  Please contact Mrs. Kover (noemi.kover@scranton.edu) to arrange.

Rules

No electronic devices (e.g. calculators, phones, smart watches, etc.), printed materials, or notes will be allowed during the competition. No coaching during either of the two rounds is permitted. We will supply scratch paper. The competitors will abide by the following rules.

Round One: Definite Integration Competition

During Round One, participants will be evaluating the same definite integrals. Each participant will be given an answer sheet and will have 2 minutes to complete a definite integral. Each definite integral will be displayed on a screen at the front of the room with a timer. By the end of the given time, participants must write a simplified answer on the answer sheet to be considered for correctness. At the end of the given time, all hands must go up and judges will grade the result immediately. It is at the discretion of the judges to disqualify an answer not written before the given time is over. This will repeat for 15 definite integrals. For each correct answer, participants will receive one raffle ticket to be entered for prizes to be drawn after dinner.

Five participants will advance to the Final Round. Those moving on will be determined by the total number of correct definite integrals. Each definite integral will be weighted though. Only in the event of a tie for the cutoff score for the Final Round will the weights be used to break the ties with those earning a higher weighted score moving on. If after this, there is still a tie for the cutoff score, we will use a second tiebreaker (explained below) for all participants at the cutoff score. Everyone moving into the Final Round will receive $25.

Tiebreaker

A Tiebreaker round will be completed separately at 5:40 p.m. as needed. All participants remaining in the tiebreaker will be required to complete the same indefinite integral in a given time. At the end of the time, if the number of those answering correctly is larger than the minimum number of spots and smaller than the maximum number of spots left available to advance to the Final Round, they will move on and the tiebreaker is over. If the number of those answering correctly exceeds the maximum number to advance, all those answering correctly will continue to the next tiebreaker problem. If the number of those answering correctly is fewer than the minimum to go on, they will advance to the Final Round and all those answering incorrectly will continue to the next tiebreaker problem.

Final Round: Indefinite Integration Bee

This part of the competition will be conducted in rounds. Each contestant remaining at the beginning of a round will attempt an integral in a given amount of time one at a time.

Contestants will be given an indefinite integral one at a time to be attempted on a whiteboard or chalkboard in the front of the room in a given amount of time (approximately 2 – 3 minutes *). If a contestant answers correctly before time expires, the contestant remains in the competition. Once every remaining contestant has attempted one problem, a round is completed. If during any round, all contestants are unable to complete the problem correctly in the time allotted, all contestants will remain in the competition for another round. The last person ** remaining wins an additional $75 and will be crowned the Integration Champion!

  • *The details on the exact time given to complete an integral will be announced during the introduction and review of rules at the beginning of the competition.
  • **If no winner has been determined by 7:10 p.m., we will move into a tie breaker with all finalists still remaining at that time.

Past problems

Previous Integration Bee Problems

The countdown timer used in these files functions properly only on select pdf readers, e.g., PDF-XChange Editor and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC work.

Types of Integrals

Integrands will only be real-valued functions of a single variable. The organizers will have full discretion as to what integrals will be issued throughout the contest and to the correctness of the answer.

The integration techniques or integrands that may be employed for the high school division are

  1. basic functions such as power, trigonometric, exponential, and log functions
  2. algebraic manipulations to rewrite the integrand
  3. u-substitution
  4. integration by parts

During the Final Round, arbitrary constants will not be considered in the evaluation.

Photos

2019 Integration Bee

About 70 female and male students sitting at their desks during the 2019 Integration Bee A Hazelton Area Academy of Science student during the 2019 Integration Bee Two Wyoming Seminary students during the 2019 Integration Bee A closeup of three female students working at their desk during the 2019 Integration Bee Overview of the classroom filled with 70+ participants of the 2019 Integration Bee Two female and one male student working during the 2019 Integration Bee A closeup of a male student working at his desk during the 2019 Integration Bee A Hazelton Area Academy of Sciences student solving a definite integral by substitution during the 2019 Integration Bee A closeup of a smiling Wyoming Seminary male student during the 2019 Integration Bee A Hazelton Area Academy of Sciences male student solving an exponential integral by substitution at the blackboard during the 2019 Integration Bee A male student solving an exponential integral by parts at the blackboard during the 2019 Integration Bee Winners of the 2019 Integration Bee with Dr. S. Muir

2018 Integration Bee

Closeup of male students working at their desk during the 2018 Integration Bee A closeup of male and female student working at their desk during the 2018 Integration Bee Dr. T. Shimkus with five participants of the 2018 Integration Bee A male student solving a trigonometric integral at the blackboard during the 2018 Integration Bee A female student solving an exponential integral at the blackboard during the 2018 Integration Bee Dr. T. Shimkus with the three male and two female winners of  the 2018 Integration Bee

2017 Integration Bee

Coordinator of the 2017 Integration Bee at her pulpit with participants in the background A closeup of a male and female high school students during the 2017 Integration Bee A closeup of two male high school students during the 2017 Integration Bee Round two of the 2017 Integration Bee A closeup of a female and male student during the round two of the 2017 Integration Bee A closeup of two male students during the round two of the 2017 Integration Bee Students raised their both their hand after the time ran out during the 2017 Integration Bee A female student integrating a rational function at the whiteboard in front of the class during the 2017 Integration Bee A male student integrating a radical function at the whiteboard in front of the class during the 2017 Integration Bee A male student showing thumbs up during the 2017 Integration Bee College Winners of the 2017 Integration Bee Highschool Winners of the 2017 Integration Bee

2016 Integration Bee

Highschool winners of the Integration Bee 2016 Students during the second round of the Integration Bee 2016 Highschool students during the second round of the Integration Bee 2016 Highschool winners during the Integration Bee 2016

2014 Integration Bee

College student showing the "Go Math" glove/sign during the Integration Bee 2014 Highschool winners during the Integration Bee 2014 Integration Bee 2014, College Winners Wyoming Seminary Highschool students during the Integration Bee 2014

2013 Integration Bee

Female and male students working at their desk during the 2013 Integration Bee About 70 female and male high school students sitting in a classroom during the 2013 Integration Bee Female and male high school students sitting in a classroom during the 2013 Integration Bee A closeup of a female student working during the 2013 Integration Bee A closeup of four male and one female students working during the 2013 Integration Bee A male student working on a trigonometric integration problem at the whiteboard during the 2013 Integration Bee A male student integrating a rational function at the whiteboard during the 2013 Integration Bee Five wINNERS of the 2013 Integration Bee with Dr. S. Muir Five laureates of the 2013 Integration Bee with Dr. S. Muir

2012 Integration Bee

About 70 high school students seated in a classroom work on a problem during 2012 Integration Bee A close-up of two students working on a problem during 2012 Integration Bee Two female and one male Integration Bee 2012 participants and Dr. J. Muir talking after the competition A male Integration Bee 2012 participant looking at the screen from his seat A female and a male student working on a problem, sitting in a classroom during 2012 Integration Bee Dr. M. Otarod helping a student during 2012 Integration Bee Dr. Ferzola and a classroom full of high school students during 2012 Integration Bee A male student solving a problem on the whiteboard during 2012 Integration Bee A male student finished solving a problem on the whiteboard during 2012 Integration Bee A student solving a problem on the whiteboard during 2012 Integration Bee The five winners of the 2012 Integration Bee with Dr. S. Muir The five laureates of the 2012 Integration Bee with Dr. S. Muir

2011 Integration Bee

A view of about 70 high school students sitting in a classroom getting ready for Integration Bee 2011 A student showing how to solve an integral by substitution on the whiteboard The five laureates of the 2011 Integration Bee with two faculty members A student showing how to solve an integral on the blackboard
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