Trailblazing Mathletes Begin Caribou Contest

Students logged on to a supervised session within a 2 ½ hour window of time on the evening of October 19 to engage in their first contest of the year. Here is an example of one of the questions that several of them tackled:

 

 

Such a question does not necessarily reflect a topic or skill from any current unit of study, as it incorporates several. It involves much deeper thinking as there is no referenced algorithm or given strategy; students must come up with their own approach and keep track of their work as they process several steps. Working under timed conditions gives students practice under such constraints unhampered by the specter of a letter grade. This is problem-solving for its own sake and for challenging oneself, stretching the imagination, and feeding the voracious curiosity our children possess.

 

Picking up where our Math Team left off last year, our individuals and teams did extraordinarily well. All of our students averaged significantly higher scores than the average worldwide. It is also important to remember that these averages are based upon other math teams of high-caliber students also electing to compete. Of these students, it is astounding to report that one 2^nd Grade student, Ayaan, took 1^st place out of 4,407 students in the world! Check out Ayaan and Cella, 1^st Grade, and the top scoring girl, celebrating with Caribou plushie o’ Lanterns! Furthermore, several 5^th and 6^th Grade students (Ayan, top 1%, Ty, top 5%, Ren, top 10%, Brandon, top 11%, and Aleksi, top 20%) placed in the top 20% in their age groups out of over 18,000 mathletes worldwide. In addition, one 7^th Grade student and two 9^th Grade students also took the contest, the latter two (Shin, top 1% and Finn, top 7%) also having taken it before and scored in the top 7% in the world out of almost 7,000 students. Our young mathletes are off to a Trailblazing start this year!

 

There are many upcoming contests, including the fall Noetic Learning Contest and the next Caribou. As all are welcome, you do not have to register for contests to attend math team practices; however, all participants should consider them. There is still plenty of time to register for these contests; simply click here so your child/ren can enjoy these opportunities and plenty of resources for practice and enrichment. Practices are as follows: