It all adds up
PENN TWP — They came from Erie and they came from nearer towns. Pencils in their hands and matching number Ninja T-shirts on some of their backs, they converged on Penn Christian Academy, 199 Airport Road.
Penn Christian was hosting, as it has for the past 10 years, the annual Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) Math Olympics.
One hundred and seventy four students in grades three through six from eight schools gathered in the lunch room ready for the contests of computation and reasoning skills to begin on April 12.
Holly Depew, student life director at Penn Christian, organized the competition.
“This is my eighth year as chairman, and it has been handed down to me from the previous chairmen,” Depew said.
She attributed Penn Christian's long tenure as Math Olympics host to its central location in the ACSI Northeast region that encompasses Christian schools in Erie, Meadville, Seneca and State College, as well as Sarver and Portersville.
“It also helps that Penn Christian has the staff to do this,” said Depew, about the people needed to monitor the contest and tabulate the results.
The mathletes face an hour and 15 minutes of one of the most grueling competitions imaginable: a series of math problems. And to really make it excruciating, some are word problems; the dreaded, “If I'm on a train heading south at 50 mph ...”
Depew explained that at the start of the event competitors are divided by both grade and whether they're taking the computational test (figuring out formulas and equations) or the reasoning test (the word problems).
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“There is a test to determine which category the student excels at and how they would best serve the school,” Depew said.
Before the Math Olympics, Depew said, “They practice sample questions that would help them anticipate what would be asked on the test.”
On the day of the competition, contestants are led to a classroom and a Penn Christian faculty member hands out the tests. The testing is divided into four 11-minute segments.
“There are two adults to monitor and a timer to keep an eye on any shenanigans,” she said. “No calculators are allowed. They can use pencils and scratch paper.”
Penn Christian students not involved in the contest run the completed tests to a scoring room where answers are corrected and tabulated.
Craig Carnahan, Penn Christian administrator, was one of those adding up scores.
“I've been tabulating for the last four years,” Carnahan said. “As they start the second test, the first test is taken to the scoring room for tabulating. We use an Excel sheet, it's pretty speedy.”
Speed is part of the test, Carnahan said.
“They challenge the kids,” he said. “You really have to do some thinking in those 11 minutes.”
When all that thinking is finally done, there is a 30-minute break where contestants can buy snacks in the lunch room, watch movies or go outside for some exercise as the final scores are tallied.
“All the wins are individually based, but of course every school wants to collect the most firsts,” said Depew.“Medals are awarded to first-place finishers only if they reach 85 percent or higher in correct answers,” she said.Second- through fifth-place winners receive ribbons and a sense of accomplishment for mastering mathematics.Depew admits that's a feeling she isn't familiar with.“Math was not my best subject. The irony is my peers find it funny that I'm a math supporter not a math-deficient participant,” she said.While the Math Olympics are under way, the lunch room is filled with waiting parents.One was Tim Blakelock of Lower Burrell who brought his third-grade son, Levi, a student at Evangel Heights Christian Academy in Sarver, to his first Math Olympics.Blakelock said, “Levi is a good student. He gets 99 to 100 on his report card. He's doing reasoning.“I was good at math and my wife, Kristin, is the algebra teacher at Evangel Heights, so he gets it from both sides,” he said.“I think he will handle it all right,” said Blakelock. “He didn't seem nervous, which was a surprise, he seemed OK.”Apple White of Monroeville was waiting for her son, Tristan White, a sixth- grader at Trinity Christian School in Pittsburgh, to finish his reasoning tests.“This is his first year doing this,” she said. “I'm not sure how he was selected for reasoning. He did problems and was evaluated at school.“He's good at math and he loves puzzles and brain teasers,” she said.Jackson Morgus, 12, of Center Township, won the sixth-grade reasoning contest for Penn Christian.“I didn't feel any pressure at all,” Jackson said. “I like the reasoning. It is interesting. Rather than throwing boring problems that you can solve in 30 seconds, it challenges my brain.”Of course it helps if, like Jackson, you've won the reasoning competition four times before.Jackson Ulonska, 9, another Penn Christian student, won the third-grade reasoning competition on his first try.“I have never done Math Olympics before. The word problems, they were really difficult,” he said. “You had to use the words as clues to find the message, then solve the message and translate it back into word form.”“I felt a little bit of pressure,” Jackson said. “But basically I worried about getting the problems right and focusing.”“It wasn't necessarily easy, but I like challenges. I'm grateful we have such a good math teacher like Mrs. (Trisha) Doverspike,” he said. “It's been a nice accomplishment and I thank everyone who has taught me these things.”Meghan McGee, 11, won the fifth-grade reasoning contest.While she's competed in computation contests in the past, Meghan said, “I just like word problems. For one thing, there are less problems because they think they take longer to read, and I like that.”“I felt pressure during computation but reasoning seemed quicker,” Meghan said.Depew said Evangel Heights in Sarver collected the most first-place awards, three.
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