Local Students Win Regional Math Competition
February 24, 2009
STARKVILLE, Miss. — A team of middle school Mathletes® took first place in the Tombigbee Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition.
The winning team from Starkville’s Armstrong Middle School includes top individual performer Huiying Zhang as well as Wilhelm Liano, Evan Bridges, and Katya Gilbo. Coached by Chad Sorrells, the team will now advance to the state competition, to be held at Hinds Community College, Rankin Campus on March 14.
The second and third place teams are from Fifth Street Junior High of West Point and Heritage Academy School of Columbus respectively. Fifth Street’s Matt Goodwin and Lotus Chen of Armstrong Middle School will be competing in the individual state level competition.
In our increasingly technological society, those students who do not begin developing strong problem-solving, logical thinking and analytical abilities in middle school will face an uphill battle if they wish to pursue careers in medical, scientific, mathematical, engineering or technical fields.
As a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students, MATHCOUNTS prepares students for future career opportunities and success. More than 7 million students across the U.S. have participated in the MATHCOUNTS program in the last 26 years.
The Tombigbee Chapter is sponsored by the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE) at Mississippi State University. Leadership of the local MATHCOUNTS program is provided by members of the BCoE and members of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
The National Sponsors of MATHCOUNTS are Raytheon Company, Northrop Grumman Foundation, National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation, ConocoPhillips, General Motors Foundation, Lockheed Martin, 3M Foundation, and Texas Instruments Incorporated. The National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation founded MATHCOUNTS.