{"id":15279,"date":"2016-12-09T09:09:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=15279"},"modified":"2016-12-11T08:35:08","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T15:35:08","slug":"competition-fires-students-enthusiasm-for-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/12\/competition-fires-students-enthusiasm-for-math\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition fires students&#8217; enthusiasm for math"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-15279\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"15279-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Trophy3-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Trophy3-1-771x508.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Meadowlark Elementary School students raucously celebrate winning the Billings Elementary Math Team Cup for the third straight time on Thursday.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Aidan-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Aidan-1-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Aidan Kessler, a Meadowlark sixth-grader who also happened to come up with the school logo on the front of his T-shirt, works on a problem during the contest.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Keep-calm-1-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Keep-calm-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Another Meadowlark student, with the school's cheeky slogan.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Tom-and-Amy-1-771x494.jpg*771*494\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Tom-and-Amy-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Helping run the competition were Big Sky parent Tom Rupsis and Meadowlark teacher Amy Leffler.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Prizes-1-771x483.jpg*771*483\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Prizes-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Eyes on the prizes.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Thinking-1-771x445.jpg*771*445\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Thinking-1.jpg\" \/><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>There was a lot of serious thinking going on during the competition.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"15279-slide7\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Dad-pic-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Dad-pic-1-771x457.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>A parent, waiting in the hall outside the Big Sky gym, snaps a photo through a window.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 15279, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/12\/competition-fires-students-enthusiasm-for-math\/', 7 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>A few days before a math competition for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders took place at Big Sky Elementary School, Tom Rupsis was explaining what the prizes would be for the top-scoring students.<\/p>\n<p>Rupsis, a\u00a0Big Sky parent who came up with the idea for the contest last year, said the winning boy and girl in each grade would receive a National Geographic Quadcopter Drone.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To determine the winning school\u2014four took part in the competition on Thursday\u2014 judges would add up the scores of the top 10 students from each school, with the winner taking home the Billings Elementary Math Team Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea is that it will be a traveling trophy,\u201d Rupsis said. Then he laughed and added, \u201cMeadowlark has won the first two contests, so it hasn\u2019t traveled very far yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It still hasn\u2019t. After a five-round contest in the Big Sky gym-lunchroom on Thursday, after the pizza had been consumed and the drones distributed to the winning students, it was announced that Meadowlark Elementary School had won once again.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15287\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-15287 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Keagin-1.jpg\" alt=\"Keatin\" width=\"336\" height=\"271\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keatin Hertz, a fifth-grader at Rose Park Elementary, who was dressed for the season, ponders a problem.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>And no wonder. The team coach, Amy Leffler, a fifth-grade teacher at Meadowlark, offers an after-school practice once a week, in which the students spend 45 minutes going over problems and puzzles similar to those used in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Leffler had already been offering an after-school robotics club, so it didn\u2019t take much work to transfer her students\u2019 enthusiasm to prepping for the math competition. So many students\u2014about 60 of them\u2014were showing up that she had to break the group into two sections. And they have fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the practice, they always want to take home their practice sheets and do them with their families, with their brothers and sisters, and show them to the grandparents,\u201d Leffler said.<\/p>\n<p>Generating that kind of enthusiasm was just what Rupsis had in mind last year, when he suggested such a contest to Big Sky Principal Kim Beatty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWay back when I was in high school I was on the math team,\u201d said Rupsis, who grew up in Maryland and is now a self-employed IT project manager and software developer. He had two boys attending Big Sky last year and one this year.<\/p>\n<p>Beatty was supportive, as was the Big Sky PTA, which agreed to put up some money for prizes. Next, Rupsis reached out to other West End schools to see if anyone else was interested.<\/p>\n<p>Arrowhead and Meadowlark schools decided to participate, and during the first competition in November 2015 more than 40 kids took part. That number rose to 60 for the second contest, last spring.<\/p>\n<p>For this fall\u2019s competition on Thursday, Arrowhead was not involved, but Rose Park and Poly Drive schools signed on, joining Meadowlark and Big Sky. The event attracted 80 competitors.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>As in previous competitions, the first round involved speed math, using basic arithmetic, followed by number puzzles. The third round had the students doing brain teasers. Those can be just about anything\u2014number patterns, riddles \u201cor just something to make them think,\u201d Rupsis said.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth round involved letter math, in which letters replace numbers in patterns and the kids try to figure out what numbers the letters stand for. The final round involved logic puzzles.<\/p>\n<p>During the contest, it was so quiet in the gym that you could hear pencils scratching on paper. When Rupsis, presiding over the competition, gave a two-minute warning during the first round, one little girl looked across the lunch table at her friend with an expression of shock on her face. But by then a few other students were already done, sitting composed and confident, hands folded.<\/p>\n<p>Aidan Kessler, a sixth-grader at Meadowlark, said he enjoyed the competition because \u201cmath has been my favorite subject for a while now,\u201d and \u201cbeing able to hang out with your friends and do math is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His favorite rounds were the ones involving letter math and number puzzles, \u201cbecause I just like doing algebra and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15288\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-15288 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Math-Ella-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ella\" width=\"336\" height=\"245\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ella Kincaid, a sixth-grader at Poly Drive Elementary, said she really started to understand and enjoy math just this year.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Kraig and Cris Kincaid were waiting in the hallway with other parents during the competition. Their daughter Ella is a sixth-grader at Poly Drive, and Cris said she was surprised when her daughter told them she was going to be in a math contest. Cris said she is the one usually nudging their daughter to get involved in activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully, this will help her start doing stuff on her own,\u201d Cris said.<\/p>\n<p>Although Ella had never shown much interest in math before this year, her mother added, \u201cshe loves it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s just not crazy about this part,\u201d Kraig said, referring to the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Ella, speaking just after the contest ended, didn\u2019t betray the slightest bit of nervousness. Asked if she could have imagined just a year or two ago that she\u2019d be involved in a math contest for fun, she said, \u201cNo. I think it\u2019s really funny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Aidan, she said she likes the after-school practice, which Poly Drive also offers, and loves being confronted with a new math problem. \u201cFiguring it out really makes me happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Rupsis said Big Sky has invited only other West End schools so far, for logistical reasons, but he\u2019d like to expand it to include as many Billings schools as are interested.<\/p>\n<p>The competition is already getting almost too large\u00a0for the Big Sky gym, he said, and he\u2019d like to reach the point where they\u2019re forced to move it to one of the high schools or colleges.<\/p>\n<h5>Drum roll, please<\/h5>\n<p>Here are the top three boys and girls from each grade in Thursday\u2019s math team contest:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fourth-grade girls<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Ellwyn Wilson, Meadowlark<br \/>\n2nd: Mcenna Cowger, Rose Park<br \/>\n3rd: Mikaela Willems, Rose Park<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fourth-grade boys<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Levi LInscott, Meadowlark<br \/>\n2nd: Joshua Puckett, Meadowlark<br \/>\n3rd: Jayden Devais, Big Sky<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fifth-grade girls<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Kaelyn Claunch, Big Sky<br \/>\n2nd: Choley Smith, Rose Park<br \/>\n3rd: Emma Croft, Rose Park<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fifth-grade boys<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Joshua Goudy, Rose Park<br \/>\n2nd: Adam Rupsis, Big Sky<br \/>\n3rd: Keatin Hertz, Rose Park<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sixth-grade girls<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Jenna Wagner, Big Sky<br \/>\n2nd: Bo Barthel, Meadowlark<br \/>\n3rd: Emma Leffler, Meadowlark<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sixth-grade boys<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>1st: Sam Boese, Meadowlark<br \/>\n2nd: Ethan Lester, Big Sky<br \/>\n3rd: Aidan Kessler, Meadowlark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few days before a math competition for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders took place at Big Sky Elementary School, Tom Rupsis was explaining what the prizes would be for the top-scoring students. Rupsis, a\u00a0Big Sky parent who came up with the idea for the contest last year, said the winning boy and girl in each [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5255,5250,5249,5251,5252,5253,5254],"class_list":["post-15279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-amy-leffler","tag-big-sky-elementary","tag-math-contest","tag-meadowlark-elementary","tag-poly-drive-elementary","tag-rose-park-elementary","tag-tom-rupsis","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}