Freedom 4th graders take 1st, 2nd place in math challenge
Posted on 05/24/2018
(SPS) - You can go right ahead and call the 4th graders who participated in a virtual math challenge "Champions!"

Freedom Elementary entered two teams to participate in the Perennial Math Virtual Challenge for 4th graders Thursday and walked away with the top two spots.

The two 5-student teams were assembled by Mrs. Buck and at 10 a.m. they sat down for a one-hour tournament with seven other teams across the country.

The teams were only given three minutes to answer a question in one of the categories of algebra, time, logic, patterns, measurement, geometry, and computation.

Team One consisted of Eli Beck, Eli Wilson, Gage Mazza, Kyler Kinney, and Luke Castleberry.

Team Two was represented by Shirin Mortazavi, Kayla Buckner, Aidan Stevens, Zach Demauro, and Ella Davis.

Mrs. Buck said when she asked those 10 if they wanted to participate they immediately started jumping up and down.

"They love math. They are constantly asking me, 'Can we learn this? Can you teach me this? Can we go to fifth grade? Can we do this?' They are constantly wanting to know more about math," Mrs. Buck said.

As the hour wound down and the scoring results were tallied, it was a bit tough to handle for Eli Beck.

"It was kind of nerve-wracking because I didn't know who would win," said Beck.

Team Two was the second team announced. They took second place. And then it was time for Beck's team to be announced as the winner.  

"We've never done this before and the very first time we do it we're getting first place, it's pretty fun."

Perennial Math will mail a trophy to Mrs. Buck to display in her classroom and the students will each receive a certificate.

Great job, 4th graders!!!