MathCounts contest spurs interest in advanced mathematics

Feb. 7—BLUEFIELD — Doing advanced mathematics problems is usually not considered a competitive sport, but middle school students tested their intellects Tuesday when they came to Bluefield State University for the 38th MathCounts contest.

Roy Pruett, professor of electrical engineering with Bluefield State, said MathCounts is a competition for middle school students in grades sixth through eight. Middle school is the best time to introduce students to higher math and the careers that use it. MathCounts is also a good time for introducing students to Bluefield State.

"Right now in our electrical program we have two students that came through the MathCounts program," Pruett said. "Also, we have a teacher here who came through the program."

MathCounts competitions come in stages.

"They start out the first part with what's called the Sprint Round, which is 30 questions and they have 40 minutes to solve them," Pruett said. "And then we have the Target Round where they have eight problems to solve. They're distributed in pairs of two. In the end, they have a Team Round where the whole teams gets together to try and solve a set of problems."

And the problems students tackle are not basics like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

"Basically algebra, trigonometry, statistics," Pruett said. "It is higher level math. And I'm also glad to have the answer sheet when I go to grade it."

Last year, the PikeView Middle School math team won second place in West Virginia and fourth place the year before that, he added.

"We all have players who are the top in the state, so the program is making progress" Pruett said. "We've been out here for 38 years and it's produced very positive results."

MathCounts encourages students to study advanced mathematics and look at careers involving it. Pruett said he sees help wanted ads for engineers in the {em}Bluefield Daily Telegraph.

"There's a critical shortage in that field now," he added.

Chancellor Garry Moore told the students that he hopes to see them at this summer's Emerging Scholars/STEM program. Last summer, the students attending the program used drones, built robots and did practical math.

"We did some fun stuff," Moore recalled. "I sat in some of the classes and I tell you it was absolutely wonderful to behold that people actually fell in love with learning. And this is what we do here. This is what higher learning is all about. Lower learning isn't lower. Higher learning isn't higher, really, but the thing is once you put yourself in student mode for the rest of your life, that's when you get somewhere. I hate that when we get Ph.Ds, they call them finishing degrees. Finishing what? We still have to get up the day after we get the degree, so we still learn something. Our greatest teachers have been our students. And those of us who get to teach, we get to learn twice. That's the great thing about teaching."

Moore had some advice for the MathCounts competitors.

"Don't ever let someone diminish you by calling you a nerd," Moore told the students. "Wear that badge with honor."'

The winners at the 38th MathCounts includes the following students and their middle schools:

The top scoring students, from first the twelfth included Ethan Kim of Bluefield; Drake Lineberry of Princeton; Andrew Calfee of PikeView; Ryan Nguyen of Princeton; Owen Hackney of Princeton; Elijah May of Glenwood; Alex Lopez of Princeton; Alyssa Dinger of Glenwood; Slate Adams of Glenwood; Chris Morgan of Princeton; Da'jean Braxton of Princeton; and Hala Sweiden of Princeton.

Students advancing to the state competition include the PikeView Middle School team with students Drake Lineberry, Owen Hackney, Ryan Nguyen and Chris Morgan. The Bluefield Middle School team with students Ethan Kim, Zachary Owens, Leah Yancey and Austin Burnopp will also advance to state competition. Four other students — Andrew Calfee of PikeView, Elijah May of Glenwood, Alex Lopez of Princeton and Alyssa Dinger of Glenwood — will also go to the state finals.

Team scores from first to fourth include Princeton Middle with 24.75 points; Bluefield Middle with 23 points; Glenwood School with 17.5 points; and PikeView Middle with 16.5 points.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com