On December 10th, Bloomingdale’s Mu Alpha Theta teams emerged victorious from the Winter Math Bowl at University of South Florida. The school earned the top overall ranking out of the twenty-seven in the county.
When the competitors first walked in, they had to separate from the friends on their teams and sit down for the individual portion, a 20-question Scantron test. After the test, groups reunited for the team portion, which, according to Geometry team member Freshman Breana Brinkman, was much less stressful. “It was so much fun!” she said. ”I had a great time!”
Soon after, once everything was tallied up, the award ceremony took place, in which three of the school’s four divisions achieved top-three spots. The Precalculus team made third place in their division, Algebra II got second, and Geometry took the first-place spot. Also, the Calculus team received a notable 6th place.
Many students from Bloomingdale scored well individually, too. Steven Whitaker of Calculus made fifth place on the exam, Travis Bird of Geometry got third place, and Ian Ludden on Algebra II scored first. To put that in perspective, each division had over 100 students from different schools competing.
Mrs. Rosemarie Fuentes, who sponsored the winning Geometry team at the bowl, was ecstatic that her team and the school placed first. “Geometry has always done really well, but I think these guys were the first to get it. They won because they collaborated well. I could see the other teams’ members working on their calculators by themselves and getting the questions wrong. Our Geometry talked, used paper and pencil, split the work, checked, and got the points.”
After the excitement died down, a few weeks of rest, then the teams went into preparation to defend their championship in the Spring Bowl.
To congratulate all of the participants, Mrs. Fuentes says, “I’m very proud. Continue the hard work. You were a great representation of Bloomingdale.”
