UW-Parkside celebrates local MATHCOUNTS champions
Local
"Mathletes" compete in Madison
after contest at UW-Parkside
A team of middle school Mathletes® from Racine's
Prairie School
won the recent MATHCOUNTS competition with two teams from Kenosha finishing second and third earning
each a trip to the state finals. The daylong contest was held at and sponsored
by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Members of the winning Prairie School
team were Connor Binder, Mike Mason, Ben Scharding, and Shan Sivanushanthan. They were coached by
Harry Huizinga. Ben Scharding was honored as the top overall contestant in the
competition.
The team from Kenosha's John Bullen
Middle School featuring
students Abigail Bullmore, Sidra Cheema, Michael Heinisch, and William Wortley with coach Julie Milligan captured
second place. Third place went to Lance
Middle School's team of Josh
Ault, Nick Eggert, Connor Hildebrandt, Alice Wei, and coach Tracey Keckler.
These teams, along with individual competitors Cory
Scharding of Racine and Zakary Miller-Granger of
Kenosha, advanced to the state competition in Madison on Saturday, March
3. The top four individuals from the Madison
contest will compete at the Lockheed Martin MATHCOUNTS national competition in Fort Worth, Texas,
May 10-13, 2007.
"In our increasingly technological society, students
who do not begin developing strong problem solving, logical thinking and
analytical abilities in middle school face an uphill battle later in life if they
wish to pursue a medical, scientific, mathematical, engineering or technical
career," said local MATHCOUNTS official Darwin Behlke. "As a national
program designed to improve math skills among U.S. students, MATHCOUNTS prepares them
for future career opportunities and success."
Behlke noted that more than 7 million students across the U.S. have participated in the MATHCOUNTS program.
Along with the UW-Parkside Computer Science Dept., the local MATHCOUNTS program is sponsored by members of the WSPE-SE Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers. For more information on MATHCOUNTS, access www.mathcounts.org on the Web.
