MATHCOUNTS “Mathletes” are Winners

February 12, 2024

by Karen Custer

PANAMA CITY, FL - Gulf Coast Chapter’s MATHCOUNTS Competition was held on February 9th, at Florida State University (FSU), Holley Center. One hundred thirty-four (134) of some of the brightest young minds in the area, from ten (10) area middle schools, participated in the competition. Hundreds of thousands of students participate in MATHCOUNTS programs or use their resources each year.

The competitors, also known as “Mathletes”, are currently in grades 6 through 8, and attend Rutherford, Bay Point, North Bay Haven, Breakfast Point Academy, Holy Nativity, Merritt Brown, Mowat, Rising Leaders Academy, Lynn Haven Charter and Surfside. The top two (2) teams will advance to the State Level Competition, which will be held on March 29th, in Orlando, Florida.

The program opened at 9:00 am, with Jennifer Aldridge, Disaster Recovery Project Manager and Floodplain Manager for Panama City, coordinating the activities, as she has done each year for the last 10 years. The excitement level in the room was high, with lots of chatter from students who were ready to go. Students were asked to give their cell phones to their coach until the competition was over and to not sit with a friend or schoolmate. Proctors handed out calculators, scrap paper and tests, with instructions to not turn the tests over until asked.

At this point, Arthur Hooks, AVP Project Manager at Volkers, Inc. took over at the podium. He asked the kids to vote on whether their coaches should take the test while they did, and they heartily voted “yes.” Each Mathlete wrote their name, school name and team name of “Sheldon” or “Missy” clearly on the first page, which contained the “Honor Pledge”. Hooks read the Honor Pledge to them, asking them to follow along as he read, then to sign and date it, and to write the digits 0 through 9 in boxes on the page, for the judges to use for handwriting analysis, if needed, during scoring. The first session allowed only scratch paper, a pencil and their test, no calculators, graph paper, rulers, or other electronics.

The first round was the Sprint Round with 30 problems to solve, allowing 40 minutes for completion. The instructions were to answer all questions legibly, to simplify to the lowest terms, and to put only the final answer into the answer box on the left-hand side of each page.

The kids were very excited when the Sprint Round ended and they moved into the Target Round, with questions getting progressively more difficult. The Target Round included 8 problems, with 4 sets presented in pairs, each pair being collected before the next pair was given out. The kids again were told to simplify to the lowest terms and in this round, the use of calculators was allowed.

After the Target Round ended, the kids went out to grab a bowl of Cheez-It crackers and ran outside or played the piano.

The Team Round was next. The students sat at tables with their teammates and were allowed to work with the other members of their own school’s team. Each kid got a copy of the test, but the team captain recorded the team’s official answers on his or her test, with only the team’s name on the booklet.

After the Team Round ended, the students broke for pizza, soda and cookies for lunch and spent the time socializing.

Next was the Ciphering Round. In this round, one student from each team sat on the same side of a table, with a coach who was not from their own school sitting behind them. Rising Leaders Academy was not present for this round. A question was presented with each of the kids given 45 seconds to write down the answer then hold the paper in the air for the coach behind them to take, with the coach calling out a number in sequence, starting with “1”. After 45 seconds, the correct answer was revealed. The teacher behind student “1” would announce “CORRECT” and the school name, if the student’s answer was correct, or “INCORRECT” without the school name, if the student’s answer was incorrect. The first student to answer correctly scored 5 points for their team, the second scored 3 points and the third scored 1 point. This was repeated for a second question then another set of students would replace this set.

There were four sample problems done first so kids and teachers could get the hang of it. Photos and videos were not permitted once “real problems” were given since some of the problems will be used again in future competitions, so they are carefully guarded.

Last, but not least, came the Countdown Round. The participants in this round were the top 10-scoring students from all of today’s rounds, who were called to the front of the room to participate, 2 at a time. A problem would be presented and the first student to ring the bell that was in front of them was allowed to answer, while the other one could keep working and give an answer if the first student gave the incorrect answer. If a student called out an answer without ringing the bell first, they would be disqualified. A correct answer was worth 1 point.

While the final decisions on Awards were made in a room on the second floor, twenty-two (22) student names were drawn and “gift cards” were given out.

Some of the team members wore custom team t-shirts. North Bay Haven team members wore blue polo shirts with an embossed emblem, Breakfast Point Academy wore white t-shirts, Holy Nativity wore red t-shirts, Mowat wore black or grey t-shirts, Lynn Haven Charter wore blue t-shirts and Surfside wore black t-shirts.

Twenty-one (21) volunteers helped out today with ten (10) serving as proctors in the testing room, including 4 adults and 6 high school students who had participated in MATHCOUNTS in previous years. The others were in a room on the second floor, scoring tests. About half of the students competing were girls and half were boys.

Next year’s competition has already been scheduled for Friday, January 21, 2025. See you there!

Congratulations to the schools who received Team Awards and especially to the top 2 teams who now advance to the State Level:

1st - Mowat

2nd - Surfside

3rd - Holy Nativity

4th - Merritt Brown

Individual Awards were given to the top 5 students:

1st – Owen from Surfside

2nd - Logan from Surfside

3rd - Kevin from Mowat

4th - Eli from North Bay Haven

5th - Elijah from Surfside