Bobcat Stories

MathCounts is a national organization that provides resources and competitions designed to engage and inspire middle school students in math and engineering. Bosque School students have participated in the middle school math club for several years, coached by math teachers Spencer Baum and Heidi Goodman.  

The chapter level of the MathCounts competition, hosted by Sandia Labs, was held on February 15 at the UNM Centennial Engineering Center. The Bosque School team placed fourth, the highest they’ve ever done, advancing them to the state-level competition. The Bosque School students competed against bigger schools, both public and private, who had larger teams and more established history with the competition. The four-member winning Bosque team included sixth graders Simon and Ermis, seventh grader Andreas, and eighth grader Josie. Additionally, three students—sixth grader Nico, seventh grader Lucas, and eighth grader Lillian—qualified as individuals to go on to the state level. Additional participants included sixth graders Cora, Benjamin, and Miles and eighth grader Aryanna.

The competition consisted of three rounds, each asking the students to solve increasingly challenging problems, starting with simpler computational problems and leading to more advanced problems requiring an understanding of algebra, geometry, and probability.  

No matter whether they advanced or not, all the students showed great commitment to the club; they came to practice every Thursday after school and gave up Saturday morning to do hard math instead of sleeping in.  Throughout the day, they excitedly debriefed the problems between rounds. Ms. Goodman overheard two girls at the lunch table earnestly advising each other on when to use the Pythagorean theorem. Another group shared new insights about the properties of exponents. Ms. Goodman told the Buzz, “It’s inspiring to me to see students engaging with such challenging math.”   

The kids themselves were proud and excited about what they had accomplished: "It was cool,” said Nico, after they learned they had qualified for state, "there were buzzers in the final rounds, and I wish there were buzzers for every round so it could be more like the movies!” Lucas compared the experience to Battle of the Books and said, ”Instead of memorizing a bunch of facts, you're using math strategies and operations you have learned. I am excited for the state competition!" Simon commented, "The countdown round was surprisingly easy, but the team round was my favorite because I didn't have to do everything on my own. "All the students would agree with Andreas that "the competition starts easy and gets harder, and so I think the state competition will be even harder!"  

On March 8 in the state competition, the Bosque team placed sixth out of 18 schools from all over New Mexico. What a great result for these hard-working students and their devoted coaches!