Belgreen students do well in math contest

By Staff
Melissa Cason
Franklin County Times
BELGREEN – Jaime Key and Rachel Billingham's sixth, seventh and eighth grade math students traveled to Hanceville over the weekend to participate in the Phi Theta Kappa 2007 Invitational Middle School Math Tournament.
In all, 32 students participated in the event.
Key said competitions such as these enhance what is taught in the classroom and gives students more confidence in their academic abilities.
The students were given a 25-question test and one hour to complete it. The students competed against other students in their grade level.
Key said that the questions on the test were quite difficult, many exceeding the students' grade level.
At the end of the hour, several Belgreen students found themselves in line for an award.
Seventh grader Shawn Hall placed second in his grade level and eighth grader Tyler Medina placed eighth in his grade.
In addition to the testing round, four students from each grade participated in the ciphering round, which is sort of like a quiz bowl round. Students are given a problem and the faster they calculate it the better.
"They faster they got the problems solved, the more points they received in this round." Key said.
Again, Belgreen studetns were called to claim their awards.
Belgreen's sixth grade students placed seventh, the seventh grade placed fifth and the eighth grade placed eighth.
"They did very well considering there were 54 schools in the event,' Key said.
She added that while this is the first year Belgreen has participated in the event, she and Billingham anticipate attending the competition again next year.