|
Monday, 17 May 2010 |
 Benton students from left: Ryan Mallaby, Stevie Walters, Will Kimball, Alaina Smith and Alex Jones all placed in the top 10 at the Regional Alegebra 2 competition hosted by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Ninth-graders Ryan Mallaby, Will Kimball, Alex Jones, Alaina Smith and Stevie Walters all competed in the Regional Algebra 2 competition hosted by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
But before the students could even set foot into the competition, they had to learn more advanced algebra — algebra that hadn’t even been taught to them in class.
In steps their teacher, Rhonda Crumby, held extra sessions after school to teach her students about the problems they could possibly face at the competition.
“She taught us stuff that we hadn’t learned yet. If I didn’t go to those, I wouldn’t have done as well,” said Stevie.
Then the day came when the students would no longer be able to have the help of their teacher. It was time for the competition.
Students from across the region arrived at UALR with their calculators in hand, most of them high school students. Then the Benton students checked in to the competition and then nervously took their seat at a desk. With their calculator at their side, the students began solving the 22 multiple choice questions and the three open response questions as fast their pencils and brains could work.
Despite how diligently he was working, Will was having a little trouble with the test takers about his test taking strategy.
“I kept getting into trouble because I was filling out the answers on the question booklet and not bubbling in the answers on the answer sheet,” he said.
Nevertheless, Will and the rest of the students finished the competition and walked away knowing they had done their best and that is all anyone could ask of them.
Then the scores were announced and the students learned they had made the top 10 in the Algebra 2 competition. Ryan won second place, Alaina won fourth, Will won third, Stevie won fifth and Alex won seventh.
“I was excited when we learned that we won,” Stevie said.
But the math competitions weren’t over yet for the students. Because of their outstanding scores, nearly the whole team was able to compete at the state tournament; however, due to previous obligations, only Ryan and Will actually attended.
Once all the answer bubbles were filled and calculators turned off, the two boys received some great news. While it was an honor to attend the event, they actually earned top honors as well, and Ryan even took home the first place title.
“Once I got to state, I figured I was going to win,” Ryan said humbly.
This is the first time that Crumby has taken her students to either competition, so she was thrilled for their excellent performance.
“I didn’t know what to expect, so they definitely exceeded my expectations,” she said.
When the six students are not plugging numbers into their calculator, they participate in numerous other activities in school, such as jazz band and quiz bowl. Alaina is on the dance team while Stevie is on the cheer team.
But compared to their other activities and the difficulties of junior high, math will always be enjoyable to the students because of one important fact.
“In math, there is always a definitive answer. There are no exceptions to the rules,” Will said. “There is no gray area. The answer is black or white.”
|
Razorbacks
