KU News Release

April 18, 2008
Contact: Gloria Prothe, Department of Mathematics, (785) 864-3651.

KU announces winners in Math Awareness Month competition

LAWRENCE — Problem solving and critical thinking kept busy more than 220 students from 80 area schools in the mathematics competition held April 5 at the University of Kansas.

At the end of the testing, award winners included 36 students from schools in Lawrence, Leawood, Olathe, Overland Park and Wellsville, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.

The competition is divided into four groups: third and fourth grade, fifth and sixth grade, junior high school level (seventh, eighth and ninth) and senior high school level (10th, 11th and 12th). The exams consisted of five questions that took 40 minutes to complete. Jack Porter, professor and chair of mathematics, coordinated the competition.

Students competed for more than $1,400 in cash prizes given to the top three places in each age group. Competition organizers also recognized honorable-mention winners in each group.

Prizes will be awarded at the Department of Mathematics’ 51st annual Honors Banquet on Wednesday, April 23, at the Adams Alumni Center.

The competition is held in conjunction with the department’s Mathematics Awareness Month activities. The theme for this year’s celebration is Mathematics and Voting. Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics, coordinates the Math Awareness Month activities.

Math competition winners are listed below by school city, school name and student name:

LAWRENCE
Broken Arrow Elementary School: Anna Kleibohmer, fifth and sixth grade, honorable mention

Hillcrest Elementary School: Siyin Li, fifth and sixth grade, second place; Shimon Rosenblum, third and fourth grade, first place

Quail Run Elementary School: Matthew Eagle, third and fourth grade, honorable mention; Christian Lyche, third and fourth grade, honorable mention; Thor Lyche, third and fourth grade, honorable mention

Sunflower Elementary School: Karthik Kailash, fifth and sixth grade, third place

Southwest Junior High School: Jason Chang, seventh to ninth grades, first place (tie); Zhen Chen, seventh to ninth grades, honorable mention; Andrei Elliott, seventh to ninth grades, honorable mention

West Junior High School: Alex Becker, seventh to ninth grades, third place (tie); Victoria Gilman, seventh to ninth grades, second place (tie)

LEAWOOD
Prairie Star Elementary School: Grace Brentano, third and fourth grade, second place

OLATHE
Liberty View Elementary School: Wes Caldwell, fifth and sixth grade, honorable mention

Olathe South High School: Li Zeng,senior high, third place (tie)

Regency Place Elementary School: Alisha Gupta, third and fourth grade, honorable mention

OVERLAND PARK
Bentwood Elementary School: Emmett Fitzgerald, fifth and sixth grade, honorable mention

Blue Valley Middle School: Spencer Ho, seventh to ninth grades, third place (tie); Nimish Mittal, seventh to ninth grades, honorable mention; Allen Zhu, seventh to ninth grades, honorable mention

Blue Valley West High School: Stephen Rong, senior high, first place

Cedar Hills Elementary School: Eric Zhao, third and fourth grade, third place

Cottonwood Point Elementary School: Sakalp Gupta, third and fourth grade, honorable mention

Heartland Elementary School: Jason Laramore, third and fourth grade, honorable mention

Overland Trail Elementary School: Reese Degasperi, third and fourth grade, honorable mention; Michael Zhou, fifth and sixth grade, first place

Overland Trail Middle School: Karthik Chellamuthu, seventh to ninth grades, second place (tie); Adeesh Jain, seventh to ninth grades, first place (tie)

Oxford Middle School: Kevin Cao, seventh to ninth grades, third place (tie); Jack Chen, fifth and sixth grade, honorable mention

Shawnee Mission North High School: Matthew Sullivan, senior high, third place (tie)

WELLSVILLE
Wellsville Elementary School: Dayne Sabatos, third and fourth grade, honorable mention

KANSAS CITY, MO.
Barstow School: Brandon Bachar, seventh to ninth grades, third place (tie)

St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School: Spencer Chu, seventh to ninth grades, second place (tie)

The Pembroke Hill School: Thomas Hodgman, seventh to ninth grades, first place (tie); Mahadev (Dave) Nair, senior high, second place

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