Huntington Students Impressive in Suffolk Math Tournament
A group of strong elementary school level math students enrolled in the SEARCH program allowed the Huntington School District to garner honors at the inaugural Suffolk County Math Tournament at Stony Brook University. In all, 110 students from 22 teams across the county participated in the daylong event.
Six months earlier, Maryann Daly, Huntington SEARCH program chairperson and a longtime teacher in the district, was contacted by organizers of the event, asking if Huntington would be interested in participating. “Knowing that competition is a valuable experience for children when the emphasis is on the risk taking and not the winning, I said ‘certainly,’” she recalled.
Planning started immediately and the ultimate results show the hard work was worth it. “After the last Math Olympiad meet was held in March, I knew which students had placed in the top five positions in each building,” Mrs. Daly explained. “The children involved readily agreed to be a part of this first-time ever event, so all systems were go.”
In the three weeks leading up to the competition, teams reported to Mrs. Daly’s classroom for additional practices centered on working together as a team to solve a specific amount of Math Olympiad-style questions in a 30 minute block of time. Each week, a different student was named captain of their team allowing the youngsters to decide for themselves who worked best to pull the group together for the actual competition.
During the individual portion of the tournament, students were given 35 minutes to work independently on ten difficult problems. During the team portion, each five-student team was asked to work together to complete ten even more complex problems in only 25 minutes.
Here is one of the team problems: "The sum of all the prime factors of 42 is subtracted from the sum of all the odd factors of 42. What is the result?"
While the organizers marked the answer sheets of each team, participants gathered together to openly discuss and explain how they arrived at their various solutions to the problems.
“It was interesting to listen to how some children arrived at their answers and the buzz in the ballroom focused on different approaches taken to arrive at the same solution to the problems,” Mrs. Daly said. “You could hear the logic and analytical thinking many of these students had used when solving these Math Olympiad problems.”
Fourteen competitors tied for second highest score in the individual event. Huntington students who were involved in the tie-breaker round included Christian Jamison, Donovan Richardson, Alex Castillo and Marc Feldman. “This was a pretty nerve wracking time, since accuracy and speed mattered in how a student placed,” Mrs. Daly recounted. Mr. Jamison from Huntington Intermediate, placed first in the tie breaker, earning him a large trophy for his efforts.
In the team competition, the squad from Huntington Intermediate placed second with the Woodhull team not far behind. For their team effort and sportsmanship, the Huntington Intermediate group was awarded a large trophy. Team members included Messrs. Jamison, Castillo and Richardson, Jeremy Gelb (captain) and Spencer Young. The members of the Woodhull team included Mr. Feldman, Chelsea Holmes, Elizabeth Coneys, Ben Nikodem and Brian McConnell (captain).
“It was a wonderful day filled with fun, excitement and active learning,” Mrs. Daly said. “One of the nicest moments for me was when another teacher who had been proctoring the Huntington Intermediate team, came to tell me how well these students worked together, sharing their thoughts and ideas. We look forward to participating in this challenging day again next year.”
Mrs. Daly offered hearty congratulations to all the students involved in the competition. “They did a terrific job and had fun at the same time - a win-win any day!” She added thanks to her SEARCH program colleague Heather Barfuss for helping with students throughout the day. Ms. Barfuss served as this year’s Math Olympiad coach for Huntington Intermediate School’s fifth graders.
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