Why Raytheon Sponsors Math Contests for Kids | Editor's Picks - The Nation

Weapons manufacturers have figured out an early recruitment strategy, continues The Nation.

A 12-year-old student demonstrates how her team came up with the answer to a difficult question during a March 2019 MATHCOUNTS championship. (
Photo: Judy Griesdieck / Star Tribune via Getty Images

In less than 30 seconds, eighth grader Daniel Mai from Acton, Massachusetts, solved a math problem that would likely intimidate most people: “What is the quotient of 5,040 divided by the product of its unique prime factors?” With his correct answer of 24, Mai won the 2019 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Championship, a competition showcasing the most mathematically gifted middle schoolers in the country.

From the very first competition in 1984, MATHCOUNTS has remained committed to instilling in students a love of math. The organization has been recognized by every sitting president during its 30-plus-year existence and lauded as a model charity encouraging students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)...

...Scores of students take Raytheon’s advice and pursue STEM PhDs only to reckon with the brutal demands of a post-recession academic job search. Many languish in adjunct and post-doctoral gigs, which become harder to escape from the longer one stays in them. Some quit academia altogether.  
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Source: The Nation