Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy sweeps MathCounts competition

Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy had a strong showing at the MathCounts competition Feb. 4 at North Idaho College.

Students placed in the top 10, and several earned individual accolades.

Charter's middle school MathCounts club meets once a week throughout the school year. Students gather to play math games and work through different strategies to solve complex math problems. In January, Charter holds a schoolwide competition and takes its highest-placing students to create its MathCounts team, which competes at the chapter level.

"I think participation in this club is cool for students to see that it's OK to be good at math and to celebrate it with others who have higher-level problem-solving skills too," MathCounts adviser Stacy Smith said Friday. "It can also open the doors for students to learn about careers in math fields that they may not be aware of."

MathCounts is a national competition for students to test their math skills against other top math students at the regional, state and national levels.

At the Feb. 4 event, Charter's Middle School MathCounts Team participated against other area middle school teams in a timed competition that involved three individual rounds and one team round, Smith explained. Those who have the best individual scores in the first two rounds advance to a final individual round. In this competition, the top 10 compete against each other in a quick to respond, loser out style of competition.

Charter placed five students in the top 10 with eighth grader Alistair Smith winning the whole thing.  

Alistair and fellow eighth graders Katie MacPhee and Harper Wing will head to Boise in March to compete as individuals at the state level. The team of Alistair, Charlotte, Harper and seventh grader Jake Young will also compete together at the state level in March.   

The following middle school students placed in the top 10 at the North Idaho Chapter MathCounts Competition: Delia Bodnar, Charlotte Hober, Harper Wing, Katie MacPhee and Alistair Smith, all in eighth grade.