Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, February 15, 2012
(BEDFORD) - Students from Lawrence County will be competing for bragging rights during the M.A.T.H. Academic Invitational on Thursday at the Bedford North Lawrence Auxiliary Gym.
Competition will begin at 5:15 p.m.
M.A.T.H. Bowl Director Denise Buckingham says there will be 11 teams made up of fourth and fifth grade students from Bedford North Lawrence Community Schools, Burris and St. Vincent de Paul School, competing to take the top rankings. This year's event is being sponsored by Brent Maudlin of State Farm Insurance.
"This year students will be able to receive prizes and awards for their hard work during this practice competition, because of the sponsorship by State Farm," Buckingham says. "This local competition is preparing the students for the state round on March 1st. The kids are really excited about this and are working hard to win."
Approximately 7,000 thousand students in grades 4, 5, and 6th from around the state are preparing for the 16th Annual M.A.T.H Academic Team for Hoosiers competition, which will take place at 44 sites on March 1 and locally at the BNL Auxiliary Gym. Buckingham says 442 teams of up to 20 students each will compete.
The competition is a team concept with no individual winners. Each of the four rounds consists of three team members working on seven multiple- choice problems which will be read to the students and projected on a screen simultaneously. Problems can be from one of four curriculums: number sense, computation, algebra and functions, or problem solving.
After the emcee, Daniel Dyke, assistant principal at BNL, reads the question, each squad will have 30 to 60 seconds to consult with team members and determine an answer. The team captain will answer the question by circling the chosen response on the answer sheet.
"A longer time period will be given for questions that are more difficult and require mathematical calculations," Buckingham says.
Each problem will be graded immediately and a scoring chart will maintain a running team score.
At the state competition, team members of the schools with the highest scores in each of the four enrollment classifications at each site will be recognized with awards after the competition. In addition to local awards, the top ten teams statewide will receive either a plaque or certificate to place in their school.
The competition is administered by Indiana Association of School Principals Department of Student Programs and is an attempt to emphasize the important of mathematics in upper elementary grades.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.