MATHCOUNTS Orange-Sullivan chapter competition

MATHCOUNTS tests kids’ math acumen

Robert J. Kaiser Middle School and Liberty Middle School take second and third at chapter competition

By RICHARD A. ROSS

richardross@riverreporter.com

LOCH SHELDRAKE, NY — Where will the next generation of engineers come from? Concerned about the waning number of students who are heading into the field, the Orange-Sullivan chapter of Professional Engineers began sponsoring MATHCOUNTS, a series of competitions for students in grades six through eight to foster mathematical thinking and hopefully engender a love for the subject that might lead to a career in engineering down the line.

Catherine Tavormina, the director of school improvement oversees the MATHCOUNTS program in Sullivan County. Tavormina came to the Robert J. Kaiser Middle School (RJK) in 1997 as an experienced MATHCOUNTS coach from Whitesboro Middle School, located in Central New York. Tavormina started Sullivan County’s first MATHCOUNTS program, but had to take her team to Ulster County to find the nearest competition.

The following year, with help from Pat Ward, the director of Mathematics, Tavormina began to get other schools involved and located engineer Ross Winglowitz of Montgomery. Thus began the sponsorship of the Sullivan-Orange chapter of Professional Engineers.

Winglovitz, and fellow engineers Dave Higgins of Goshen and Tim McGoey of Mattamoras, PA were on hand to judge the MATHCOUNTS chapter competition held at Sullivan County Community College on February 24. The chapter meet featured teams from RJK, Liberty Middle School, George Grant Mason Middle School from Tuxedo and Minisink Valley Middle School.

For the past six years, Susan Smith has run the program at RJK. “Students who have an interest in math join our math club and practice two to three times a week during lunch,” notes Smith.

The competition requires students to solve word problems. In the sprint round, individuals have to answer 30 questions in 40 minutes without calculators. In the target round, students have eight questions, two at a time. They have six minutes to solve each pair and may use calculators. The team round involves groups of four students who have to respond to 10 questions in 20 minutes. Calculators and cooperative problem solving are permitted. The competition ends with a countdown round held in a Jeopardy format. Successive pairs of students from opposing teams have 40 seconds to ring in on an answer to a problem flashed on a screen. If the answer is incorrect, the other contestant has the remaining time to answer. The first person to get two right answers wins.

In the team competition, RJK eighth graders Anthony Bisignano, Nick Barton, Dan Cook and Joe Molewski finished second to Minisink Valley. RJK also fielded a team of alternates that included Brian Conaty, Jesse Kapito and Mike Gould.

Math teacher Debbie Stolow supervises Liberty’s team, which came in third. Liberty’s team is comprised of Jeni Stolow, Kristen Sauer, Adrianna Rubio and Samantha Light. The alternates included Nik Beimler, Scott Franke, Shaina Divita and Arianna Burco.

Individual sprint and target rounds winners included first place, Kirsten Sauer, Liberty Middle School; second place, Conor Sperzel, George Grant Mason School, Tuxedo; and third, Nik Beimler, Liberty Middle School.

Countdown winners included first place, Bisignano, RJK; second place, Conor Sperzel, George Grant Mason School, Tuxedo; and third place, Ryan Danas, Minisink.

Both RJK and Liberty will now head to the state meet, which will be held at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY on March 18. A national meet will take place May 11 through 14 in Arlington, VA.

One of Tavormina’s first protégés in MATHCOUNTS is about to graduate from West Point as an engineer. Erik Johnson got his start in the program when he was at RJK. According to his mother, Stephanie Johnson, it was a program that really honed in on Erik’s interests and abilities.

Given the enthusiasm of the students on hand at this year’s competition, it is likely that many more students will follow in Johnson’s footsteps.