By Anthony Grenus, The Stampede Staff Writer
are, from left: back row: Josh Anstead, Katlyne Fye, Herschel
Johnson, Teacher Judi Bookhamer, Elliot Thorp, Caleb Strouse and Alana
Kochan. In front row are: Matt Rowles, Zach Owens, Devin Carns,
Diane Thompson, Sarah Hazel and Kerry Maines. Missing from
the photo are: Thad Butler, Sarah Snyder, Ashley Struble, Sabrina
Wimer, Sierra Luzier and Macy Forrest. (Provided photo)
This year, the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School held a math competition that was sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago.
From that, three students have earned a trip to the second round to Chicago to compete, two of which are Eliot Thorp and Thad Butler, who are eighth graders, and Devin Carns, who is a ninth grader.
Teacher Judi Bookhamer was in charge of running the MathCon at the CAJSHS. She explained that more than 40,000 students from 42 states registered to compete in round one. She also explained that only the top 700 are invited to compete in round two in Chicago.
“I first heard about the match competition in December,” Bookhamer explained. “I thought it would be fun to see how Clearfield would do on a national level. All the other math teachers were very encouraging and helped me get students to sign up for it.”
The process for the MathCon at CAJSHS was pretty straightforward. The students took a 40-minute online test, which 81 students at CAJSHS from grades 8-12 participated in.
About two weeks after the students took their test, Bookhamer received an e-mail informing her that one student, Elliot, qualified for round two at Chicago and one, Devin, qualified as an alternate. Thad is going because he was the third best in the school and although he didn’t qualify, Bookhamer invited him to go for the experience.
The top three students from each grade are as follows:
Grade 8: (there was a tie between six of them): Elliot Thorp, Thad Butler, Kaylyne Fye, Herschel Johnson, Sarah Snyder and Ashley Struble
Grade 9: Devin Carns, Alana Kochan and Sabrina Wimer
Grade 10: Sierra Luzier, Matt Rowles and Zach Owens
Grade 11: Macy Forrest, Caleb Strouse and Diane Thompson
Grade 12: Josh Anstead, Kerry Maines and Sarah Hazel
(Anthony is a senior at Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School; contact him at thestampede@clearfield.org).