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‘Mathletes’
from all over hit town
By
Soren Velice
More
than 1,600 students from 175 schools around the state swarmed
the school campus to add it all up at Blaine’s 17th
annual Washington State Math Championship Saturday, March
31.
“When
you go out to an athletic event and you feel the excitement
– that’s here,” said Gary Goodman, Tosco
Refinery plant manager, before the awards ceremony. “There’s
a lot of enthusiasm in the air.” As if to punctuate
his remarks, the entire gym erupted each time an award was
given out.
“We
emphasize competition with the knowledge bowl and sports,
but there isn’t much for math,” middle school
vice principal and m.c. Jeff Coulter said. “This event
highlights the school district’s emphasis on academics.”
To
make it to the awards ceremony, each of the more than 400
teams of fifth- through eighth-graders went through a rigorous
test schedule that included algebra, geometry, probability
and mental math. Blaine fielded three teams in each grade.
“Geometry was pretty fun; probability was pretty fun,”
fifth-grader Zeenat Ali said.
“One
of the worst was algebra,” responded teammate Eric
Kodama. “But at least I’m not at home playing
Nintendo.”
“If
we learn just one thing, it’s still a success,”
Kodama’s brother and teammate Michael said. “We’re
in the high math class in school,” sixth-grader Belinda
Crowson said. “We’re trying to get better at this.”
“Our
industry has a lot of engineering,” Goodman said. “Everything
we can do in the community to stimulate that in people helps;
we use that kind of math and it helps get high paying jobs.”
Ian
Sitko, a member of one of the fifth-grade teams, recognized
the value of that approach. “Most jobs, you need to
know math,” Ian Sitko said. “My dad uses math
all the time.”
John
Dougan, who coached the fifth-graders with high school student
Bryan Chang, said he hopes the experience will give them
a taste of the adult world. “I hope they get a sense
of working hard,” he said. “I think they’ll
get a lot of work ethic out of it, a sense of working under
pressure.”
He
said although Blaine’s highest finish was the fifth-grade
team of Danny Dougan, Patrick Mulholland, Garrett Swearinger
and Mike Broyan’s 12th place, they should be proud.
“I think they should be really happy,” he said.
“These kids should all be commended for the extra work
they did to compete at such a high level.”
The
refinery sponsored this year’s competition with a monetary
contribution of $5,000, while more than 40 Tosco employees
gave their time to oversee testing, correct the answers
and compile results. “If you’re going to contribute
to the community,” Goodman said, “education is
a strong way to do it.”
Coulter
was thankful for all the event’s supporters, such as
coaches Dougan, Heather Jones, Nancy Fulcher and Anne Abrams;
Tosco, Pemco Financial Services, who sponsored a laser show
presented while results were compiled and all the volunteers.
“It
takes 170 volunteers to put this on,” Coulter said.
“We couldn’t do it without the support of the
community.”
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