STATE MATHCOUNTS COMPETITION HELD AT BRIDGESTONE AIKEN COUNTY OFF ROAD TIRE PLANT
SCSPE sponsored the South Carolina MATHCOUNTS championship on March 11, 2017. The Bridgestone Aiken County Off Road Tire Plant in Trenton, SC was host for this event. Bridgestone provided the facilities, support equipment, and support personnel needed for this event. They also provided lunch for the Mathletes and volunteers who helped in the event. This year, 12 middle school teams and 12 individuals advanced from Chapter competition, to compete for a place on the South Carolina’s State MATHCOUNTS team, who will represent the state at the national competition in May.
MATHCOUNTS is a math competition program for 6th, 7th and 8th grade students, www.MathCounts.org, and is sponsored by the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers (SCSPE), www.SCSPE.org and the National Society of Professional Engineers. The top four “mathletes” and the coach of the first place school team will travel to Washington DC, May 14 – 17, 2017.
Sterling School of Greenville, SC was recognized as the state’s top MATHCOUNTS school team. Finishing second was Dent Middle School of Columbia, SC. The third, and fourth, place teams were R.C. Edwards Middle School, of Central, SC and Dutch Fork Middle School of Irmo, SC.
The competition consisted of three timed rounds of written math problems. In the first round, the Sprint Round, competitors answered thirty questions without the use of a calculator. The Target Round was comprised of eight problems in series of two. Calculators were allowed in the Target and Team Round. In the final Team Round, the school teams of four students, together, solved ten problems.
The national team is comprised of the four individuals achieving the highest scores of the 60 participants. Receiving top individual honors in the written competition were 1st – Sam Qin, Sterling School (Greenville), 2nd-John Li R.C. Edwards Middle School, (Central), 3rd – Jason Yao, Sterling School (Greenville), 4th – Zachary Huang, Dent Middle School (Columbia). These four mathletes will be competing against 56 teams at the national competition in Washington DC, and will be coached by Ms. Connie Gordon of Sterling School (Greenville) as her school took first place in the team competition.
Again, thanks to Bridgestone for hosting this event. This is the first time this State competition has been held in the Aiken Chapter area