Documentary about math education to premiere in Oregon this weekend | OregonLive.com

Documentary about math education to premiere in Oregon this weekend | OregonLive.com:

Documentary about math education to premiere in Oregon this weekend

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian 
on October 16, 2012 at 10:01 AM

In a scene from "The Biggest Story Problem," students at a New Mexico middle school confer about math. Incourtesy of ImagineEducation

A provocative documentary about U.S. education will makes its public debut at the Eugene International Film Festival this weekend and excerpts will be presented at a national middle school conference in Portland next month. 

The 80-minute film, "The Biggest Story Problem: Why America's Students Are Failing at Math," explores -- mostly seriously but also with a sense of humor -- why U.S. students perform OK in math in the elementary years but plummet by high school to near-worst in the developed world. 

It interweaves its quest for that answer with the efforts of New Mexico math teacher turned game developer to get a narrative computer-based math game up and running