At a gifted meet, elementary students take on math - in teams and alone - that would stupefy many an adult.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published March 24, 2004
GULFPORT - Evan Billington learned a tough lesson at last year's Gifted Math Meet.
He and his teammates came in fifth place, not because they couldn't do the math, but because they kept second-guessing one another.
"We argued about the answers," Evan said. "That really brought us down."
Last week, he went to the 16th annual Gifted Math Meet armed with a different strategy.
"Once we answered the questions, that was it," he said. "We learned that it's not how smart you are, it's how well you work with your team."
Evan credits the new strategy for Bay Vista Fundamental School's second-place showing in the fifth-grade team competition.
He and his classmates were among 40 students from gifted programs in south Pinellas who competed at the Area III gifted office, 1001 51st St. S. About 220 children from mid and north Pinellas competed at two other sites in the contest that was created in 1989 to spark elementary students' interest in math.
A continuing trend this year was the participation of more girls, said Sally Baynard, a teacher in the Area III center who coordinated the meet with gifted teacher Barbara O'Steen.
"When we first started this thing, it was really top-heavy with boys," she said. "This year, three out of four of our individual winners across the county were girls. It's not always been an okay thing for girls to be interested in math, but that seems to be changing."
Students at each location were asked to solve eight problems in four-minute rounds of team competition. Each of them individually answered 20 multiple choice questions on a written test and then puzzled over six word problems. They earned points in team and individual play for their speed and accuracy.
The annual meet also tests social skills, Baynard said.
"We told the kids, "It's okay if you don't win, but you aren't allowed to carry it past the door,"' she said. "That's a hard thing for gifted kids because they're used to being winners."
Sample fourth-grade team question
At the Fourth of July parade, the local Scout troop found that it could arrange itself in rows of exactly four, exactly six, exactly seven or exactly eight with no one left over. What is the least number of Scouts in the troop?
ANSWER: 168
(Solution: The problem is actually asking for the least common multiple of 4, 6, 7 and 8. Because 8 is a multiple of 4, you really only need to find the least common multiple of 6, 7 and 8; 56 is the least common multiple of 7 and 8. Multiply by 3 (a factor of 6). The answer is 168. Check your work. It's divisible by 4, 6, 7 and 8.)
Sample fifth-grade team question
I have four times as many nickels as quarters. The total value of all my quarters and nickels is $4.05. How many nickels do I have?
ANSWER: 36 nickels
(Solution: Let Q equal the number of quarters. Because there are four times as many nickels as quarters, the number of nickels is 4Q. Therefore, 4Q($0.05)+Q($0.25) = $4.05. Work it out. 0.2Q+0.25QX = 4.05; 0.45Q = 4.05; 0.45Q/0.45 = 4.05/.45; Q = 9. If there are nine quarters, there are 36 nickels.)
