Putting their math skills to the test…that’s what 5th and 6th graders were doing at Cato Middle School. Today’s BCSD’s Math Bowl aim to show why now more than ever math is so important. Not only were these students sitting at a desk and crunching the numbers they were adding a little bit of physical activity when showing off their math skills today.
Math taking center stage at today’s 32nd annual BCSD Math Bowl. About 250 5th and 6th graders from around the district have been working on their multiplication and division. “They prepare for this event the whole year,” said Claudia Maldonado, the math instructional specialist for the department. Working alone, in pairs or groups to solve all of today’s problems. “Students need to have number sense and they have to be able to have flexibility with numbers to be prepared for 21st century skills which is what the new jobs require them to have,” said Maldonado.
The theme of this year’s event was “Just Be U”. And students were able to do just that by competing in a subject they love. “It’s just very simple and I’m really good at it,” said Exodus Villarreal, a 6th grader in today’s competition. 6th grader Exodus Villarreal has worked hard all year long to get here. “I have the top score in the class so that’s what’s motivated me to do math bowl,” said Villarreal.
Organizers of today’s event say that by holding the math bowl they hope to encourage students in their future academic careers and beyond. “We have a lot of the students who participate in math bowl then they go off to college and then we have some that come back and say hey you know I wanna be a math teacher or I’m working in engineering or I’m getting a career in science,” said Maldonado.
While all the students were hoping to take home some gold…Owens Intermediate took home the top prize…first place in the power relay. “There was five members on the team and i was number four and each person would run up the desk and answer a question and when they were done they would fill out the scantron, then come back, and then they would tag the next person to go and we kept doing that until we got to problem 80,” said Rory Horton/Owens Intermediate first place winner in power relay. And 6th grader Rory Horton couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. “I’m very very very excited, this is my first time and i hope to do it again really soon,” said Horton. Rory said that his team’s secret to success was practicing at lunch, working together and just being well prepared.
