2009 MATHCOUNTS HAWAII STATE COMPETITION
The 26th annual MATHCOUNTS Hawaii State Competition was held March 7, 2009, in the Kalama Dining Hall on the Kamehameha Schools campus. This competition is a continuation of last month’s MATHCOUNTS Oahu Chapter Competition, where finalists from the Big Island-Hawaii Chapter, Kauai Chapter, Maui Chapter, and Oahu Chapter gather and compete on Oahu to determine the State of Hawaii Team. The number of schools competing in each chapter determines the number of schools they send to the State Competition. The Hawaii Chapter was represented by Waiakea Intermediate School and individual higher scorers from Hawaii Preparatory Academy, the Maui Chapter by Iao School, the Kauai Chapter by Island School, and as reported last month the Oahu Chapter qualified Iolani School, Kaimuki Middle School, Mililani Middle School, Niu Valley Middle School, Punahou School, and Stevenson Middle School.
In review, MATHCOUNTS is a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state and territory, and is one of the most successful education partnership involving volunteers, educators, industry sponsors and students in America. The competition is opened to 6th, 7th and 8th graders.
Similar to the Chapter Competition students compete in the Sprint Round, followed by the Target, Team, and Countdown Rounds. The Sprint Round has individual Mathletes® answering 30 difficult problems in 40 minutes. The Target Round, also an individual competition, has 8 problems in pairs of two with 6 minutes per pair to complete. The Team Round, which determines the team winner, has 10 problems where the teams of four Mathletes® have 20 minutes to answer, and finally, the Countdown Round in a round robin arrangement is conducted with the 10 highest individual scorers from the Sprint and Target Rounds. It is a fast-paced, oral competition where the pairs of Mathletes® compete against each other and the clock to solve problems. Calculators are not permitted. The Countdown Round determines which four Mathletes® go on to the National Competition.
After all the test sheets were checked and the scores tallied the top ten individual scorers and Countdown Round contestants were in first place Zhengyuan Ma of Punahou, second place Emile Oshima of Punahou, third place Stephen Mau of Mililani Middle, fourth place Logan Davis of Iolani, fifth place Adam Fong of Iolani, sixth place Evan Wilson of Mililani Middle, seventh place Justin West of Highlands Intermediate, eighth place Bradley Wo of Iolani, ninth place Sean Rodan of Punahou, and tenth place Courtney Kobata of Iolani. Zhengyuan Ma was also first in the Oahu Chapter competition.
After all of the excitement and stress of the Countdown Round subsided, the top four finalists ended up in first place Emile Oshima, second place Zhengyuan Ma, third place Stephen Mau, and fourth place Logan Davis. These top four Mathletes® will represent the State of Hawaii at the National MATHCOUNTS Competition on May 8, in Orlando Florida.
As a result of the Team Round, the top team was Punahou School, followed by Iolani, Mililani Middle, Highlands Intermediate, Waiakea Intermediate, Stevenson Middle, Niu Valley Middle, Iao School, Kaimuki Middle, and Island School. As the winning team, Punahou comprised of Mathletes® Philip Lin, Zhengyuan Ma, Emile Oshima, and Sean Rodan, and coach Todd Chow-Hoy, takes home the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) State 1st Place Perpetual Team Trophy to display proudly at their school for a whole year. For his team’s victory, Coach Chow-Hoy has the honor of being the official Hawaii State Team Coach at the National Finals.
MATHCOUNTS was honored to have the following as Award Presenters: Dr. Michael Chun, President and Headmaster, Kamehameha Schools; Patricia Hamamoto, Superintendent, Department of Education; Brian Bowers, Bowers & Kubota; and Nathan Yuen, HSPE – Educational Foundation.
HSPE is the sponsor of MATHCOUNTS in Hawaii. They raise the operating funds for the competitions primarily with golf tournaments and donations. Please note that donations are tax deductible.
Source: via e-mail from Ed Chang