Math is Cool competition isn't just about the numbers
Courtesy photo Nicole Brown, Trey Nipp, Noah Waddell, Boston Spear, Alex Kingma, and Coach Tracy O’Brien pose with their second place awards after competing for Skyway Elementary School in this year’s Math is Cool masters competition in Moses Lake, Wash.
COEUR d’ALENE — In her six years training students in the Math is Cool program at Skyway Elementary School, Tracy O’Brien said she always dreamed one of the teams would move on past the regional competition.
But, the elementary school teacher said she didn’t know if that could be accomplished since getting to that point requires competing against large private schools in western Washington.
Beginning last year, O’Brien’s dream became a reality.
“Our qualifying last year and then placing second this year was phenomenal and such a testament that money doesn't buy good education — support from the community and parents, combined with desire to achieve by students is what matters most,” she said. “These kids really worked hard for this and the parents supported me all along the way.”
Throughout the school year, O’Brien works with an average of 24 fourth and fifth graders to prepare them for the regional competition that pits their team’s math skills against those of their peers. O’Brien, who has lead the advanced learning math and reading classes at Skyway for a decade, said preparing for the competition has led her to notice an increase in participants’ love of math, ability to apply knowledge to real-world situations and their sense of teamwork.
“After my students move on to middle school, many come back to volunteer after school in my math club to help train the fourth- and fifth-graders,” she added. “This has become a sense of community pride in the Skyway neighborhood.”
After regional competitions are held in Idaho and Washington, the top teams are invited to a masters competition that takes place in Moses Lake. Students qualified for the masters competition last year, but did not place.
This year, however, the fifth grade team comprised of Noah Waddell, Trey Nipp, Boston Spear and Alex Kingma, took home second place honors.
“The best part was that while none of my students won an individual trophy, they won because of their teamwork,” O’Brien said. “A coach from a competing team even approached me and commented about the incredible teamwork my fifth graders had. Quite often at this event, one or two mathletes carry a team but in Skyway's case the four boys worked so well together they truly earned the trophy as a team.”