Math pentathlon team wins national title
Online dictionary Answers.Com defines "whiz kids" as those who are exceptionally intelligent, innovatively clever and/or precociously successful.
But another definition - Math Pentathlon competitors from Fern Bluff Elementary - might also apply. That's because the school's math problem-solving team recently captured first place out of 219 schools in a nationwide competition.
The Fern Bluff kids are good with numbers but here's an easy one even the mathematically-challenged can remember: The team has been in existence only one year and already has one national championship to its credit.
"It feels good," said third-grader Kameron Dyer, one of the seven Fern Bluff students who earned gold medal and hall of fame status by winning all five of the problem-solving games in which they participated. "Everybody's real happy and excited to know that they contributed."
In addition to Kameron, Fern Bluff's other gold medal and hall of fame winners were third-graders Kevin Black and Naren Gundapaneni, fourth-graders John Davis and Praveen Elangovan, and fifth-graders Kenyon Landt and Taylor Sims.
According to its Web site, the Math Pentathlon is a program of interactive problem-solving games and instructional activities for students in kindergarten through grade 7.
Fern Bluff parent Lisa Mack organized the school's team because her third-grade daughter, Lauren, has a mania for math.
"If they were talking about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln in social studies, she'd be figuring out how many years separated their deaths," Mack said.
So Mack - who says she grew up in a pre-computer age where cashiers had to know how to count change and bowlers had to keep their own pencil-and-paper scores - got to work.
"Last spring, when we first began discussing the possibility of having a Math Pentathlon club here at Fern Bluff, I was encouraged to keep it small - have 12 kids, maybe 20 total," Mack said.
As it turned out, almost 140 of the school's approximately 900 kindergarten though fifth-grade students responded.
"Truly, my heart couldn't handle the disappointment that would result in turning away any student," Mack said. "And so we set out to build a club in which parents could offer their time and talents, which would allow us to grow it for more students.
"We set out to make a club where new friends from different grade levels helped each other learn how to play the games, how to think differently, how to see future moves, how to defend their position.
"The Fern Bluff Math Pentathlon club is not simply an after-school activity," she said, "We are a family of families, each participating in some aspect of the Math Pentathlon club at Fern Bluff. We knew the payoff was great. Our kids would develop math strategies and learn critical-thinking skills, good sportsmanship and self-confidence though game playing."
By the numbers
Math is all about numbers and Mack said Fern Bluff's Math Pentathlon club had:
• Teachers who let their rooms be used - 9
• Parent coaches and volunteers - 90
• Students participating - 136
• Students competing in tournaments - 94
• Honorable mention winners - 20
• Bronze medalists - 9
• Silver medalists - 17
• Gold medalists - 5
• Hall of Fame gold medalists - 7
'The Champions'
The Fern Bluff Community's hard work paid off, as the national champions were recognized on Wednesday - the last day of school - with an awards ceremony and party.
"We congratulate you," Round Rock ISD Curriculum Director Suzanne Burke said. "What a bang-up way to end your school year."
Rene LeBlanc of Austin - an associate national director for the Pentathlon Institute - was also on hand for the ceremonies. So was Jarrod Weaver, of the office of District 31 U.S. Rep. John Carter plus Tammy Smith, executive assistant to Pct. 1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman, and RRISD school board member Chad Chadwell.
"I was the one that told [Mack] to start small," LeBlanc said. "What she did was mix quality and quantity."
"We are just elated," school principal Elizabeth Wilson told the students. "We expect even more accomplishments in the future."
Regarding that future, Lorenzo Sadun - a math professor at the University of Texas in Austin - offered the students this advice: "You take what you learn in the classroom and you take it into the world. I'm hoping that in about 10 or 15 years I'm going to see a bunch of you down on the 40 Acres."
Then, as Queen's "We are the Champions" played over the school's public address system, the math champs paraded up and down the hallways, exchanging high-fives with their fellow students.
It was a day for intelligence and cleverness, with third-grader Jace Robinson unknowingly adding to the precociousness.
"I've never experienced being a national champion before," he said.
Round Rock Leader
June 9, 2009
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