S.J.C. students are champions of S.S.B.’s Math Olympiad
For many students, Math is a difficult subject, evidenced by poor grades countrywide. In an effort to change that reality, over the last four weeks the Social Security Board hosted the Math Olympiad, a student competition designed make math more user friendly. After winning the regional finals, this morning twelve students representing Julian Cho Technical High, Orange Walk Technical High, Bishop Martin High School, Belize Christian Academy, Pallotti High School, and St. John’s College arrived in Belmopan determined to be crowned the first champions of the event. News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin reports.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Today parents, teachers and students gathered in at the University of Belize gymnasium to witness the finals of the first ever Math Olympiad, sponsored by the Belize Social Security Board.
The six competing teams beat out a number of their peers during the preliminary rounds held earlier this month.
Rhojani Perriott Toombs, P.R. Manager, S.S.B.
“The regional finals were extremely competitive because many of the schools, it’s the first time working on computers or working with the format that we are doing, it took a little while. Usually the first round saw them getting use to the format, but now all these competitors have experience with the format, have experience with the buzzer, the computers and so it is much smoother, but emotions are running high this is the best of the best.”
The budding mathematical geniuses worked hard to get the right answers, but by round two, only three teams were locked in battle for first place: Orange Walk Technical High, Belize Christian Academy, and St. John’s College. Armed with their trusty calculator, S.J.C. students Eric Alamina and Christopher Waight worked feverishly to solve this problem:
“The shortest distance between two parallel chords of a circle is ten centimetres. If the length of each chord is twenty-four centimetres, what is the radius of the circle?”
The S.J.C. team performance proved consistent and after three gruelling hours, the young men were declared the first champions of the S.S.B. Math Olympiad.
Ufemia Castillo, Math Teacher, SJC
“Extremely proud of both of them, they’ve worked very, very hard.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“How nerve wrecking was this competition?”
Eric Alamina, Winner, S.S.B. Math Olympiad
“I was kinda nervous at first, but then I gained my confidence back in the second round so we got up back.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“This must have been a lot of mental stress?”
Christopher Waight, Winner, S.S.B. Math Olympiad
“Yes, especially in the first round when we were weighing the negatives. I wasn’t too please with myself, I was freezing up, I had to drink some water, calm down during the break.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“When did you guys knew that you had this thing in the bag?”
Eric Alamina
“We were planning to answer the rest of the questions, but after we got nineteen hundred points we just like calmed down from this and decide we were going [inaudible] third round.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“What about you?”
Christopher Waight
“Well I figured we were going to win long before the competition, but when it came into the first round that kinda changed in my mind and it wasn’t until like the last three questions I figure yeah, we’re gonna win and calmed down, put a stupid answer for the last one.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“So are these young men the top math students in the class?”
Ufemia Castillo
“Some of the very best from S.J.C.”
Alamina and Waight received fully loaded computers, a thousand dollar educational grant, trophies, medals, and certificates of participation. The prize package also included a trophy and an L.C.D. projector for S.J.C. High School.
Nadine Williams, Head, S.J.C. Math Department
“I am extremely proud because we did work hard and long on this and so this is the fruits of our labour.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“What does this means for S.J.C. and especially for the other students?”
Nadine Williams
“Well it means that they know that Math is kicking and they can work at it and they can do it. For example, today we wanted to take all A students, there were so much A students, we had to take only A plus students, and I am sure those who are B and C will want to move right up to the A. And I know we can do it, S.J.C has talent and we are gonna keep it going.”
According to officials of the Social Security Board, the idea behind the month long contest is to encourage better grades in math.
Rhojani Perriott Toombs
“The Social Security Board wanted to do something that would really bring enthusiasm to the subject of Math. When we were doing the research earlier on to find out what big project we could take on for this year, one of the things that came to our attention was that Math scores nationally were really bad and so we decided to try to give it a little boost.”
Nadine Williams
“I think the Math Olympiad is a very good competition. I think it has really inspired a lot of students and I think a lot of students will want to do more, because they know that Math is important. The Math Olympiad competition in itself was really good.”
“The only thing I would ask is that maybe they can give them another round, like the first week in the regional competition, they can allow them to have another playoff. Just to give the schools another chance. For example in the regional you have six or seven schools and they choose just one, they need to choose three and then you have another round and then the finals, to encourage some of the other schools to win.”
During today’s event, the S.S.B. also took time to share a special tribute to the late Francisca Habet, a veteran staff member of the fund. On February twenty-second, Habet lost her life in a traffic accident on the Western Highway as she headed to her Belize City home from the competition. One of her last wishes was to have the Succotz Festival Drum Corps perform during the finals, and in her honour during an intermission, the band took centre stage.
Reporting for News Five, I am Jacqueline Godwin.
The second place winners in the Belize Math Olympiad are Namrita Balani and Ronald Rempel of the Belize Christian Academy. The students each received a plaque, certificate, medal, trophy, a thousand dollar educational grant, as well as five hundred dollars for their school. Third place winners are Roberto Gongora and Dorita Sanchez of Orange Walk Technical high. The students also received plaques, certificates, and medals in addition to seven hundred and fifty dollars each in educational grants. O.W. Tech was also awarded a trophy and four hundred dollars.
