Tamaqua team wins at math contest
A team from the Tamaqua Middle School earned first place in the recent Anthracite Chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers MathCounts competition.
The win means the Tamaqua MathCounts students, along with Top 10 winners from a number of area schools, will go to the state competition March 22-23 at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel.
The competition was held from the Penn State University Schuylkill Campus, and brought sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from Blue Mountain, D.H.H. Lengel, Mount Carmel, North Schuylkill, Schuylkill Haven, Tamaqua Area and Weatherly Area middle schools.
An individual competition was also held to determine the Top 10 winners. They were, in order of placement, Padraic Kerns, D.H.H. Lengel; Logan Bachert, Blue Mountain; Lilyanne Hess, Tamaqua Area; Najlaa Belkhoutout, D.H.H. Lengel; Kevin Fredrick, Blue Mountain; Kolton Krause, Tamaqua Middle; Evan Halat, D.H.H. Lengel; Parker Steencken, Tamaqua Area; Aidan Elston, Tamaqua Area, and Tyler Carnes, Tamaqua Area.
The top team from Tamaqua team includes students Lianna Coombe-Holly, Lilyanne Hess, Izayah Ramirez and Parker Steencken, along with Kolton Krause, Marleigh Fleckenstein, Aidan Elston, Adrianna Hernandez, Shaylee Gormley, Tyler Carnes, Emily Fink and Amelia Brunda. Michael Murphy is the team’s coach.
MathCounts is the nationwide math coaching and competition program for middle school students. It promotes student interest in math by making math achievement as challenging, exciting, and prestigious as a school sport.
Beginning each fall, students began preparing for the competition. The top teams and individuals then progress to state competitions, where the top four individuals advance to the national competition.
Approximately 35,000 students participate annually in local MathCounts competitions.
MathCounts founding sponsors are the CNA Foundation, the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. At the local and state levels, the program is sponsored by NSPE’s chapter and state societies and hundreds of other companies and foundations.