Fourth Graders Tackle
Math Olympiad Challenge
When the Math Olympiad program was founded in the 1970's, the Huntington School District was among its first participants. More than three decades later, that same thirst for a challenge and desire for excellence is still evident among three different grade levels of Huntington youngsters.
Teacher Leona Dubnick pioneered the program in Huntington before handing it off to Maryann Daly, who has been its leader since 1985. Mrs. Daly is the district's SEARCH (Scholastic Enrichment and Resource for the Children in Huntington) program chairperson-teacher and coach of the Math Olympiad fifth and sixth teams.
Huntington's program has been expanded to the fourth grade level and its youngest participants are just as sharp and enthusiastic as their elders.
Math Olympiad is an international movement that seeks to stimulate enthusiasm and a love for math, introduce important math concepts, teach major strategies for problem solving, develop math flexibility in solving problems, strengthen math intuition, foster math creativity and ingenuity and provide for the satisfaction, joy and thrill of meeting challenges, according to the program's website.
SEARCH teacher Christina Gottlieb coaches Huntington's fourth grade Math Olympiad squad. Its members have all earned perfect scores on their third grade math assessments. Mrs. Gottlieb has traveled to all four primary school buildings in the district to conduct problem solving classes with the 40 fourth graders who comprise the district's team.
"In the beginning, many of her children were hesitant to take risks, fearing they would make a mistake," Mrs. Daly said. "Throughout this school year, Mrs. Gottlieb has seen real growth in these students, encouraging and guiding them into becoming more successful when solving these often tricky and advanced math questions."
Research demonstrates that early and consistent exposure to problem solving and tricky multi-step questions is beneficial to the children who excel in math. "Problem solving involves logic, mastery of computation and reading comprehension. No one wants to be wrong," Mrs. Daly said. "Through the Math Olympiad program young students learn that it's okay to take a risk without the fear of failing just as long as they continue to try their best. These students mature and improve in their reasoning skills significantly."
Huntington fifth and sixth grade Math Olympiad teams have been perennial Suffolk powers. "Many of the children who participated in the program when they were fourth graders seem more at ease in tackling the problems we do in our weekly Math Olympiad classes," Mrs. Daly said. "Their overall performance on the five Math meets improves as well." This year the top ten cumulative scores of Mrs. Daly's fifth and sixth grade teams have been the highest she has seen in a long time.
Huntington's fourth grade squad members plan to continue tackling challenges and trying their hand at solving the same Math Olympiad problems their fifth and sixth grade counterparts are working on. Mrs. Daly said the youngsters have been doing a "great job all year."