Onekama Students Outstanding at MathCounts Competition

Onekama Middle School participated in the annual MathCounts competition at West Shore Community College February 6th.  Mrs. Warman took two teams from Onekama Middle School to compete against 220 other students from five different counties. The students that represented our school were as follows:

The ten students (out of the 220 that competed)  with the highest score on the “Sprint” round were chosen to take part in the “Countdown” round. FOUR OF OUR STUDENTS qualified to be in the top ten for the Countdown round: Kelly Hall(8^th), Kiara Bromley(8^th), Jarrod Berard(8^th) and Ben Johnson(6^th). During the countdown round students sat in front of the audience with only paper and pencil. NO CALCULATOR! A math question was displayed on a screen in front of them and they had 30 seconds to answer. The first student to get 2 out of 3 correct won. This continued until there was a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place winner. OUR BEN JOHNSON PLACED 1^st AND OUR KELLY HALL PLACED 2^nd!!!!  This is out of 220 students from 18 different schools!

Our students placed 2^nd and 3^rd in the “Team” round. Team 2 placed 2^nd and Team 1 placed 3^rd out of 55 teams in the competition.  Do you know what all this means?????  EVERY SINGLE STUDENT FROM ONEKAMA PLACED IN THE COMPETITION!!!

Math Counts Competition 2013

Mathcounts competition draws 220 middle school students to West Shore Community College

SCOTTVILLE — On Wednesday afternoon in the West Shore Community College Recreational Center, all eyes were focused directly on the piece of paper in front of them, and the young minds were churning away to find the correct answers to some very challenging math problems.

That was the scene that took place when the engineers of Manistee and Mason counties held their 30th Annual Mathcounts competition. This annual event tests the math skills of area middle school students.

Bear Lake teacher Kathy Spalding takes a picture of her students
taking part in the Mathcounts competition.

The competition is comprised of three rounds including: sprint, target and team competition. Students work individually in the spring and target rounds and as a group in the team one.

The 10 students with the highest combined score at the end of those three rounds then take part in a countdown round to determine the overall winner.

“Each of the tests increase in difficulty through out the day,” said engineer consortium committee member James Nordlund of Nordlund & Associates. ”The sprint round is the easiest, and the team round the most difficult.”

Schools taking part in the event come from the area surrounding the college. Engineer Carey Duran, of Harsco Track, said. The overall number of participants varies on how many teams each school brings.

There are up to 220 junior high participants from Manistee, Manistee Catholic, Onekama, Bear Lake, Kalava-Norman Dickson, Ludington, Ludington Area Catholic, Covenant Christian, Oceana Christian, Mason County Central, Mason County Eastern, Hart, Pentwater, Baldwin, New Era Christian, Walkerville, and Shelby Schools.

Nordlund pointed out that the test is geared strictly for this age level, and really challenges the middle school students math skills. He said the top teams have the opportunity to go on to the next level.

“This test originated from the National Professional Engineers,” said Nordlund. “We modified it, as the national test only allowed one team per school. Obviously, we have more than that here today from some schools, because we thought it would reach more children.

“The winning team can go on to state and national competition,” said Nordlund. “This year it will be held in either Traverse City or Muskegon.”

Members of the committee indicated that they plan to keep holding the competition in the future. They say the teachers and students seem to enjoy it.

The West Shore exam is not all hard work, however, as the engineers have planned an open recreational period where the kids can use the facilities at the College. The swimming pool and ice arena are very popular with the students.

Engineers that have worked on the Mathcounts committee are from Nordlund & Associates, Inc., West Michigan Testing, OxyChem, and Harsco Track Technologies as well as retired engineer Jon Cooley and Bill and Shirley Mitchell of West Shore Community College. Harsco Track Technologies purchased prizes and awards while Kathy Surd, of the Intermediate School Districts has coordinated the engineers and schools.

Posted by Ken Grabowski, Manistee News Advocate