On March 7, students who excel in math from all around the Greater Cincinnati area came together to compete at the annual University of Cincinnati Math Bowl.
The competition calls for teams of two to five students from seventh through twelfth grade to complete two sets of math problems. Participants use mathematical skills, concepts and problem-solving strategies, learned in and outside of the classroom. These problems must be completed in a set period of time with explanations for how the team derived each of their solutions.
The solutions are then judged by a panel of experts who grade based off of efficiency, quality and creativity of the teams’ solutions for each of the three different competition levels: Level I, covering Calculus, Level II, covering Algebra II and Geometry, and Level III, covering Algebra 1 and Pre-Algebra.
“I really find UC Math Bowl to be unique in the fact that it focuses on how you got to your solutions on the different problems, rather than your solutions themselves. Other mathematics competitions tend to focus just on your solutions based on a multiple choice test format, but the Math Bowl allows students to value the creative aspect of math, something you don’t see too often,” Math Team president, Shubhra Mishra, ‘21, said.
The WHHS Math Team sent multiple teams across Level I, II and III, and rose to the highest during the competition, performing exceptionally with many high ratings. WHHS got multiple Superior and Excellent awards for their work, a common occurrence for WHHS at the UC Math Bowl annually.
“I had a really good time solving math problems I don’t usually get to see in class during the Math Bowl. My team did really well and worked together really well, and that showed in the end. In general it was fun to hang out with other students from WHHS who also share a passion for math,” Paige Mickol, ‘21, said.
Students from outside the Math Team were welcomed to participate on behalf of WHHS as wel. Some Teachers offered extra-crdit to students who spent their Saturday answering math problems in the competition. This effort clearly paid off as WHHS flexed their mathematics proess at the competition.