Students from the
Darnell-Cookman Middle School MATHCOUNTS team took second place at the Northeast regional competition at UNF on February 29.
MATHCOUNTS is a nationwide math enrichment program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement. Competitions occur throughout the United States, and are led by the National Society of Professional Engineers.
19 chapters in Florida and 22 public and private schools from five counties attended the regional competition.
To tryout for the MATHCOUNTS team at Darnell-Cookman, students had to be in the eighth grade and enrolled in Geometry. During tryouts, there were four rounds of elimination and the top nine students and one alternate were selected. Four of those students competed as a team, and four students competed individually.
Team members were Curran Kuehl, Ana Bautista, Reem Aboushaar and T.J. Smith. The individual members were Daniel Josol, Deanna Schauben, Reno Varghese and Spenser Hayward. Pooja Krishnamoorthi was selected as an alternate.
During the competition, students competed in the following rounds: Team Round - all students work together to solve 10 problems; Target Round - each student works alone on four sets of two problems at a time for a total of eight problems; and Sprint Round - each student works alone on 30 problems.
The top 10 ranked students from these three rounds competed in the Countdown Round, which is a head-to-head competition. Out of more than 170 competitors, Darnell-Cookman had three of the top 10 students, and all eight of the Darnell students placed in the top 25.
The top three schools and the top four individual students go to the state competition. The students heading to the state competition from Darnell-Cookman are Curran Kuehl Ana Bautista, Daniel Josol, Reem Aboushaar and alternate T.J. Smith.
James Weldon Johnson Middle School, which ranked third at the regional competition, will also be heading to the state competition and had one student finish in the top 10.
Mary Badillo, a teacher at Darnell-Cookman and the coach of the school’s MATHCOUNTS team is excited for her students and the notoriety it brings to Duval County.
"MATHCOUNTS is extremely challenging and rigorous." Badillo said. "I think it is great that the top three schools going to the state competition are public schools and two of them are from Duval County."
The state competition is on March 28 in Orlando.
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