By: Tom Markland
INWOOD — Dozens of intermediate school students reported to Musselman High School on Tuesday morning for Math Field Day, a multiple-part competition built to help them flex their math skills.
Later this week, students from middle schools across Berkeley County will come to Musselman High School to compete, followed next week by the county’s high schoolers. The competition was originally supposed to start last week, but snow caused a delay.
“Math has a bad rap,” said Anne Laskey, mathematics instruction specialist at Berkeley County Schools. “People have negative connotations, and so this is a way to celebrate math and show that there’s some cool stuff we can do with it.”
“I call these guys my math-letes,” Laskey added.
During the competition on Tuesday, students were challenged with a 40-question exam, along with several timed mental math problems. Then, they rotated through a section of physical math problems, where they were tasked with determining measurements of actual objects with very few tools.
Many of this year’s objects were pirate themed, so the competition saw some students attempting to measure the dimensions of a flag with their hands, the length of a chain with a provided clipboard or estimating how many coins were in a jar.
According to Laskey, the county has been participating in Math Field Day for more than 30 years. Laskey herself has been part of the program in Berkeley County since she joined the county’s central office 12 years ago. She said her favorite part is getting out of the office and interacting with the kids.
“Some of the kids at the high school level have been coming since fourth grade,” Laskey said.
Selecting the students is left up to each school. For Orchard View Intermediate, 21 students came to Musselman High School on Tuesday morning for the competition, selected from the student population based on various test scores. According to Megan Burns, a teacher at Orchard View Intermediate and one of the two Math Field Day coaches, the students are selected in October and practice weekly until the competition.
“We try to come up with some scenarios that might be similar to what they’re going to experience and run them through a simulation,” Burns said. “They’re very fascinating to watch.”
At the end of the day, the top 10 students competing are recognized and then Laskey takes the top three to the regional competition, which takes place on Mar. 10 at Shepherd University. From there, the top three from the regional competition will go on to the state-level competition.
“We always do well at regionals,” Laskey said. “We usually have one or two per grade level.”