St. Bernard’s Math Team Competes in MATHCounts Manhattan
Ten St. Bernard’s students spent most of Saturday, February 4, at the MATHCounts Manhattan competition at Stuyvesant High School. The members of St. Bernard’s math team were selected after all of the boys in grades VI - VIII took a preliminary exam at school. Problem solving is highlighted in this exam, and the problems are carefully crafted to encourage students to look at the same problem in new ways. The boys who earned the highest scores represented St. Bernard’s in MATHCounts Manhattan last weekend.
The day began with four rounds of problem solving. The “Sprint Round” included thirty short answer problems that the boys worked on independently. Boys continued to solve problems independently during the “Target Round,” and then worked well together during the “Team Round.” All of this took place before lunch!
After lunch the boys enjoyed an engaging talk by Professor Jim Matthews. Then the highly-anticipated “Countdown Round” began, where the top sixteen individual participants competed before a live audience.
Dr. Johnson and Ms. Robinson are quite proud of the way the boys performed. All of the members of our math team were strong, and they performed well as individuals and as a team. St. Bernard’s math team earned the tenth place out of thirty-three participating schools. While only the top five teams continue on to compete in the state competition, placing in the top ten is quite an achievement. Dr. Johnson describes this competition as a game of inches, where often fractions of points have determined the standings. In the individual competition, John R. placed in the top 10% and both Corwin C. and Marcus S. placed in the top 15%.
Congratulations to all of the members of St. Bernard’s math team! Special thanks to Dr. Johnson and Ms. Robinson for helping the boys prepare and for accompanying them to the competition.
