Forget the Super Bowl, this is the Math Bowl. D.C.’s first ever “Middle School Math Championship.”
D.C. school kids got up early on Saturday, their day off, to go to school voluntarily. What a parent’s a dream. And it gets better – the kids are totally excited about math.
About 100 students, from eight public middle schools from across the city, took part in this head-to-head competition in math, pre-algebra and algebra, Saturday morning at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Northeast, DC.
“Seeing our children excited about math is an amazing thing. But seeing them celebrate math is a dream come true,” says Tonya Harris Assistant Principal of Deal Middle School. She created the math bowl. She says this will absolutely be an annual event and that she sees it growing bigger each year.
Harris says there are spelling bees and sports competitions so it’s about time for an academic competition involving math. What a great way for kids to want to get better at math. And that a little friendly competition in this case is a good thing.
One of the students competing in the math championship is Tipate Tolson, a sixth grader from The Walker Jones Educational Campus. When asked, before the competition got under way, if he’s a math wizard, he answers, “Yes.” When asked how well he’s going to do in the competition he says, “Flawless.”
Although Tolson is very confident, his math teacher on the other hand is stressing out just before the competition starts. “I’m more nervous than them,” says Clarence Monsanto.
Although he’s nervous, he loves the idea of having a math competition. He says, “It’s about time.”
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