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1,000 students put their calculators away for FGCUmath competitionBy HEATHER CARNEY

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Pencils, scrap paper and brains.

Those were the only tools high school students could use Thursday to solve complicated

geometry, calculus and algebra problems at the annual Florida Gulf Coast University

Mathematics Competition.

More than 1,000 high school students and some middle school students participated in the ninth

annual statewide competition. Teams from local schools, including Naples High School,

Community School of Naples, Fort Myers High, Royal Palm Academy and Seacrest Country Day

School participated and won awards.



FGCU awarded seven full scholarships to students from each of the individual subject

competitions — Algebra 1, geometry, statistics, Algebra 2, precalculus, calculus, and chemistry.

FGCU added chemistry this year in response to the statewide emphasis on science, technology,

engineering and math (STEM).

Naples High School freshman Austin Kalmans participated in the competition for the first time this

year. He loves math and the problem solving it requires.

"There's almost always a direct answer," Kalmans said.

This year, he and his three Naples High teammates took home the 8th place trophy for geometry

out of 36 teams. Their eyes lit up in shock when their names were called. After the geometry

round, the team members said they didn't think they did as well as they could have.

Each team had four minutes to complete a dozen problems on the projection screen. If a team

answered correctly in the first minute it was awarded 16 points, 12 points in the second minute

and so on.

Volunteer FGCU students ran between the tables collecting the answered problems, which were

scored by local high school math teachers.

"It started out easy but then it got a lot harder," Naples High team member Sami Sanderson said.

The Naples High team also said the wording of the problems was tricky.

"We're learning stuff here that we won't learn until later in the year," Naples High team member

Owen Gemmer said. "We'll be ahead."

The Community School team won first place for the geometry category and Seacrest Country

Day School won first place in the Algebra 2 category.

Jeremy Price of Community School won first place in the chemistry competition, while Samantha

Burns of Seacrest won first place in the Algebra 2 competition. Both earned a full scholarship to

FGCU.

FGCU math professor Jerry Ellis started the competition nine years ago as a way to draw

students to the university and give students a competitive forum to practice math. This year's

turnout rivaled that of the largest mathematics competition in the state.

"I have students in my class now who tell me that they went to FGCU for the math competition in

high school," Ellis said. "They were so floored by the beauty of the campus that they wanted to

come back."

He called the math competition "the largest academic pep rally."

"These kids know that it's cool to be smart," Ellis said.

FGCU math instructor Maryann Moore agreed that the competitions are a great place for

students who aren't so keen on athletics or other clubs and activities.



"For kids who love something as uncool as math, this is a great place to be," she said.

The awards ceremony featured FCGU President Wilson Bradshaw and mathematician Edward

Burger.

Burger spoke to the students about applying math in their everyday lives. He said the critical

thinking used in math leads to the question "What comes next?"

"What comes next will shape who we are as human beings," Burger said. "There are great ideas

out there that we haven't even thought of yet."

Ellis said the math and chemistry departments are working on a similar science, technology,

engineering, and math competition for March.

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