A team of math-minded students from Britton Middle School took
top honors at a regional competition earlier this month and will go
on to a state level competition in March.
Seaside – A team of math-minded students from Britton Middle School took top honors at a regional competition earlier this month and will go on to a state level competition in March.
The Monterey Bay Chapter MATHCOUNTS Competition held on Feb. 3 in Seaside included 110 sixth-through-eighth-grade students from 16 schools.
Morgan Hill schools were represented by 32 students from Britton Middle, Martin Murphy Middle, Charter School of Morgan Hill, Paradise Valley Elementary, Barrett Elementary and Jackson Elementary.
The competition has four parts: a sprint round, when the students individually complete 30 problems in 40 minutes; a target round, with eight problems to complete in 24 minutes with the use of calculators permitted; a team round with teams working together to complete 10 problems in 20 minutes; and a countdown round, which is oral problem solving, with a buzzer.
The MATHCOUNTS curriculum requires at least a basic knowledge of algebra, which is why it can be difficult to get sixth graders involved.
In the team competition, Britton took first place with team members Kiley Foster, Emily Purvis, Ernest Yip and Bryant Gamboa. Martin Murphy’s team took third place with members Rose Kuo, Roger Kuo, Amy Freitas and John Patterson. The Britton team advanced to the state championship at UC-Davis in March.
In the individual competition, Bryant Gamboa, an eighth-grader at Britton, earned first place, and Mark Holmstrom, a sixth-grader at Jackson Elementary came in second. Bryant and Mark, who is the first sixth-grader in the history of the Monterey Bay Chapter Competition to qualify for the state competition, will go to UC-Davis in March as individual competitors.
A “Jeopardy style” Countdown Round Competition was held for the top 12 individuals in the overall competition. Of these finalists, five were from Morgan Hill. Bryant, Emily and Ernest from Britton, Rose from Murphy and Mark from Jackson were finalists. Bryant came out on top, with Ernest taking third place.
