Bob Jones Math Team scrambles to success

Math Team members at Bob Jones High School have earned some bragging rights.

The Bob Jones team finished in 18th place nationally in the 2011 Team Scramble with National Assessment & Testing. About 30 students regularly participate in the math team.

Each week as math team coaches, Shaun Bardell and Kimberly Cox teach specific mathematics topics, skills and concepts. “We had students work individually on tests from previous years, which provided work and solutions for the students to review,” Bardell said.

For the team scramble, the Bob Jones students had to solve 100 questions in 30 minutes without calculators. They could submit only one answer sheet so collaborative communication among team members was important, Cox said.

Test topics covered all high school curricula in America and varied in difficulty. The students solved some problems in seconds, while other problems required a few minutes.

Typical topics included computation, algebra, geometry, graphing, trigonometry, probability and statistics, linear algebra, discrete mathematics and calculus.

Before the competition, the math team conducted two mock competitions using previous years’ tests. “Students focused on how to best divide the 100 questions amongst the team, verify answers and communicate with each other,” Bardell said.

“I decided to sponsor math team because I love working with high school students and higher-level mathematics,” Bardell said. He likes the venue “to expand on topics in their classes and address some topics no longer in the current curricula.”

Cox and Bardell enjoy teaching topics or skills that the highest level students haven’t learned previously. “In math team, we focus not only on how to solve a problem but how to solve it most efficiently,” Cox said. This process involves “cool formulas or shortcuts that are both fun to figure out and teach.”

Based in Seattle, Wash., National Assessment & Testing administers high-quality mathematics competitions for high schools. Teams can submit their work by mail.

Next on Bob Jones Math Team’s schedule are 2011 Ciphering Time Trials on Dec. 8 and Four-by-Four Competition on Feb. 2, 2012.