2009 Math Pentathlon National Champions

National Champions

2009-06-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

On June 3rd students of the Fern Bluff Math Pentathlon Club were slapping hi-fives with friends and classmates as they marched around the school in the Parade of Champions. Just after the awards ceremony and just before they received their own personal trophies, the kids enjoyed the fame and spotlight well deserved of their achievement.

These students, in their first year at Math Pentathlon tournaments, had won the National Championship!

This blog honors their success and fantastic press so well earned.

2009 National Champions on K-Eye at 5 PM

2009-06-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

More About Fern Bluff . . .

2009-06-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Success adds up at Fern Bluff school

American kids stink at math. It's a tired refrain by now - even if it is true - but here in Round Rock ISD we are doing something about it.

We're all familiar with the problem - through statistical evidence, anecdotes or both.

Regarding the former, it seems not a month goes by without one study or another proclaiming the deficiencies of our students and our education system. Students from foreign countries routinely outscore our kids on standardized math tests.

Regarding the later - the anecdotal evidence - we all have our stories to tell and they generally revolve around young cashiers who don't know how to make change. Give them a dollar and a penny, for a 51-cent purchase, and they will give you back a deer in the headlights look. They can twitter till their thumbs fall off, but they can't - as Jethro Bodine would have called it - cipher.

Getting kids interested in mathematics might seem like an impossible task. As for getting them enthusiastic about it - well, one might as well expect them to develop a liking for Brussels sprouts and lima beans.

And yet it can be done - because it has been done - at Fern Bluff Elementary, where the school's Math Pentathlon club recently won a national championship in which 219 schools competed. Credit belongs to the entire Fern Bluff Bobcat community- students, parents and teachers alike - but most especially worthy of praise is Bobcat mom Lisa Mack, who took her own daughter's interest in math and built it into a club 140 students ended up joining.

In order to accommodate so many children, Mack recruited parents to help out as coaches and in other volunteer positions. Fern Bluff Principal Elizabeth Wilson and her team of teachers deserve praise for getting behind the effort.

School personnel have a lot on their plates. Adding one more task could not have been easy. Yet Wilson and Fern Bluff teachers took the challenge on, with no guarantee the effort would become the spectacular success that it has.

Mathematics - as much as any other academic discipline and maybe more than most - relies on a student's cumulative knowledge. The building blocks for success must be established early. That is what the Fern Bluff Math Pentathlon club has done, with 140 of the school's 900 kindergarten through fifth-grade students participating in its inaugural year.

Back in the 1990s, we saw what fifth-grade teacher Linda Wiley did with the Excel City program at Berkman Elementary. There was no reason every Round Rock ISD elementary could not have developed a similar program.

Just as there is no reason the district's other elementaries cannot follow the example Fern Bluff has now set.

Editorial
Round Rock Leader
June 12, 2009

Fern Bluff Makes Front Page News

2009-06-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

Fern Bluff feels good about championship
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.

by Brad Stutzman, Editor
Round Rock Leader
June 9, 2009

Statesman Brief

2009-06-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

STUDENTS EXCEL IN MATH CONTEST

Fern Bluff Elementary School was named a 2009 Mathematics Pentathlon National Championship school, the pentathlon campus coordinator said. The pentathalon is a competition in which students compete in five math and problem-solving games. The group has been honoring schools annually since 1994. This year, more than 200 schools from across the country participated.

Austin American Statesman
June 3, 2009

Round Rock ISD Reports

2009-06-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Fern Bluff Named Math Pentathlon National Champion

Parents, school officials and community members joined Fern Bluff Elementary students as they celebrated the school winning its first Math Pentathlon National Championship. Only 15 schools across the nation have won the honor since the Math Pentathlon started.

Rene LeBlanc, Associate Director of the Pentathlon Institute, greeted the students and announced that once scores had been counted and confirmed for all schools nationwide, the Kinder —5th grade team at Fern Bluff Elementary took the Championship with 352 points.

“This is truly an incredible achievement for our kids and our coaches,” said Lisa Mack, Fern Bluff Elementary Math Pentathlon campus coordinator. “We know our kids are truly special and now the whole country knows.”

What’s even more astonishing about the win is that this is the first year Fern Bluff Elementary has had a Math Pentathlon club on campus. Mack said she was advised to start the club with a small number of students, but she didn’t have the heart to turn down any child who wanted to participate which resulted in 136 from all grade levels joining the team.

“Clearly the dedication of the coaches, rule experts, and parent volunteers working with the kids each week has made a huge difference on that campus,” noted Mr. LeBlanc. “They have an exceptional program, an exceptional staff of parents running the program, and exceptional students.”

LeBlanc presented the team with a trophy to put in the school’s trophy case and Congressman John Carter’s office presented Mack with a certificate honoring the school’s achievement.

Tournaments have been held for the past 31 years with national championships awarded since 1994. Texas has been hosting tournaments since 1997 and this is only the second time a school in Texas has won the national championship. Thousands of schools around the US have Math Pentathlon games in the schools either in the classroom or as an extracurricular enrichment program. In 2008-2009 there were 219 schools that participated in the national tournament.

Posted Date: 6/3/2009
Round Rock ISD Website

Community Impact

2009-06-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

Fern Bluff Elementary celebrates math pentathlon national victory

More than 130 students wearing bright red t-shirts marched through the halls of Round Rock ISD's Fern Bluff Elementary School the morning of June 3. Slapping the hands of their classmates, they strutted through the hall and took in the sounds of Queen’s “We are the champions” blaring on the PA system. The students celebrated their new status as math pentathlon national champions. The mathematics pentathlon is a program of interactive problem-solving games that aims to strengthen basic math concepts and skills, which align with the national and state mathematics standards and stimulates creative thinking and problem solving skills.

This was the first year the campus offered a math pentathlon club on their campus. Students trained with activities after school and many parents volunteered on weekends to learn the rules for coaching and supervising a math pentathlon tournament.

“This is not simply an after school program,” said Lisa Mack, math pentathlon campus coordinator and who Fern Bluff Principal Elizabeth Wilson credits with bringing the program to the school. “We are a family of families.”

Mack said it is not just the students and teachers who made the program successful, but also the parents’ dedication and commitment to the program and their children.

The Fern Bluff students were named national champions June 1 upon earning 352 points at the tournament’s conclusion. Approximately 219 schools participated in the national tournament.

“You guys are rough, tough and smart,” said Dr. Lorenzo Sadun, the University of Texas Professor who addressed the students at the awards ceremony. “You didn’t just learn math, you connected the classroom to the real world and proved the book learning doesn’t end when you close the book and leave school at the end of the day.”

For more information, visit www.mathpentath.org or the Round Rock ISD website.

by Kelsey Wilkinson
Community Impact
June 3, 2009