Math Challengers event

Shuswap Middle School’s math team attended the Math Challengers competition at Okanagan College in Kelowna on February 21.

At this competition students take part in various math activities, in groups and as individuals, and are then scored on their performance to determine winners.

Teacher Gilbert Hobart explains this was the second year SMS attended the math challenge.  The students, all in grade 8, competed as two different teams against other schools in the region.  One SMS team placed second in the team round.

Three local students, Nick Wright, Nico Miedema and Kai Wilson, qualified for the ‘Face-Off’ round.  Nico was the top SMS performer finishing third.

Hobart added that the majority of students who attended with SMS last year also attended this year as Jackson students.  “It was great to see them there as it shows they enjoyed the competition so much last year with SMS that they made certain to attend again this year. “

Hobart also added that 15 math team students from SMS attended the Skills Canada spaghetti bridge building competition at Thompson Rivers’ University in Kamloops on March 6.

“It was our first year attending. This competition puts students in teams of three against each other in a competition to build a bridge from spaghetti using limited amounts of pasta.  SMS had a high success rate with 4/5 of our teams building bridges that withstood the one kg weight test for the allotted one minute time period.  Our highest placing team came in fourth place at the competition.”