Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD — Nine schools — Madawaska, Fort Kent, Maine School of Science and Math, Easton, Fort Fairfield, Presque Isle, Caribou, Mars Hill, and Wisdom — met for academic competition at the Fort Fairfield School on Feb. 4. Though a Math Meet may not be a spectator sport, it is still an exciting event that can get pretty competitive. “It’s fun,” said Martha Hamlin, who was competing for MSSM. “Part of the competition is figuring out what needs to be done in order to solve the problem, and then there is the application of the arithmetic; it can be a bit tricky, but it’s still fun,” she added.
“Some of the questions are really hard, and I understand some more than others,” said Fort Fairfield competitor Matthew Holmes. “Participating in Math Meets helps scholastically because it encourages you to ask your teacher questions about things that you wouldn’t otherwise know how to do and it helps you learn more.”
“I learned so much stuff through competing in Math Meets,” said Presque Isle competitor Samantha Sanborn. “I joined the math team in eighth grade, and I learned things from algebra II and higher level math that I wouldn’t have learned until later in my scholastic career and it was beneficial because I understood a lot more when I went through my math courses in school.”
“Being a part of the math team has its academic benefits, but I enjoy being around the people because everyone on the math team is a math person,” Sanborn added. “It’s all a matter of understanding how to solve the problem; once you understand that it’s all just a matter of applying it; it’s fun to learn all that stuff and just to be able to understand what you’re doing,” she added.
“They’re not your typical questions that are asked in high school,” said Coordinator for the Aroostook Math League and MSSM math team coach Pete Pederson. “The questions often lead the students to do a lot of thinking outside of the box.”
Like all competitions, there is a point system based on correct answers for each of the six rounds of the math meet; the teams meet once a month throughout the season, and whoever has the most points at the end of the season wins.
“Each round is 12 minutes,” explained Fort Fairfield math department chairperson and math team coach Paul Osterblom. “The first five rounds are individual, meaning the students answer their questions on their own. Calculators aren’t allowed until the fifth round, and the sixth round is the team round, where students can interact within the other member of their team,” he added.
During the break from competition, the hallways were bustling with over 100 competitors from the different schools.
During the next meet in Madawaska, awards will be given to the top performing individuals and teams of the three divisions. MSSM is in its own division, but has three teams competing against each other. Presque Isle and Caribou make up the large school division, and the other schools compose the small school division.
