2009 MATHCOUNTS OAHU CHAPTER COMPETITION

The 26^th annual MATHCOUNTS Oahu Chapter Competition was held February 7, 2009, in the Kalama Dining Hall on the beautiful Kamehameha Schools campus. There were 31 Oahu schools entered, which included 101 student contestants. Michael J. Chun, Ph.D., President & Headmaster, Kamehameha Schools, Kalama Campus is the Hawaii MATHCOUNTS Chairperson.

MATHCOUNTS is a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state and territory, and is one of the most successful education partnership involving volunteers, educators, industry sponsors and students in America. The competition is opened to 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders.

The Oahu Chapter Competition began at 8:30 a.m. with the Sprint Round, followed by the Target, Team, and Countdown Rounds. The Sprint Round has individual Mathletes answering 30 problems in 40 minutes. The Target Round has 8 problems in pairs of two with 6 minutes per pair to complete. The Team Round has 10 problems where the teams of four Mathletes have 20 minutes to answer, and finally, the Countdown Round in a round robin arrangement is conducted with the 12 highest individual scorers from the Sprint and Target Rounds. Countdown Round spectators are usually amazed by the brilliance of these Mathletes.

This year the top ten individual scorers were first place Zhengyuan Ma of Punahou School, second place Logan Davis of Iolani School, third place Emile Oshima of Punahou, fourth place Adam Fong of Iolani, fifth place Bradley Wo of Iolani, sixth place Zhaodong Chen of Punahou, seventh place Michelle Tsai of Punahou, eighth place Nikolai Chen of Iolani, ninth place Stephen Mau of Mililani Middle School, and tenth place Sean Rodan of Punahou. The finalists in the Countdown Round were first place Zhengyuan Ma and second place Logan Davis. The seven top teams were first Iolani, second place Punahou, third place Mililani Middle, fourth place Niu Valley Middle, fifth place Stevenson Middle, sixth place Highlands Intermediate, and seventh place Kaimuki Middle. All seven move on to compete in the March 7 Hawaii State Competition. As the winning team, Iolani takes home the Hawaii Society of Professional Engineers (HSPE) Perpetual Team Trophy to display at their school for a year.

MATHCOUNTS was honored to have the following as Award Presenters: Dr. Michael Chun; Louise Wong, Associate Superintendent, Hawaii Catholic Schools; Michael Harano, Principal, Washington Middle School; and Michael Lum, President, HSPE Honolulu Chapter.

HSPE is the sponsor of MATHCOUNTS in Hawaii. They raise the operating funds for the competitions with golf tournaments and donations. Please note that donations are tax deductible. The Hawaii MATHCOUNTS Steering Committee includes HSPE engineers and educators, and is led by Rowena Blaisdell and Pauline Marcello of Kamehameha Schools.

Four Mathletes from the Hawaii will go to the National Competition in Orlando, Florida, on May 7-10 at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. These four will be determined in competition at the March 7, 2009 Hawaii State Competition. Competing will be the seven Oahu schools plus one school each from the Big Island, Maui County and Kauai.

The top Mathlete at the Orlando competition will be crowned the National Math Bee Champion. For the past two years the Champion has been honored with the Relly Award on the “Live with Regis and Kelly” Show as the Top Junior Achiever, and the top four Mathletes, their coaches, and the top team have all been honored by President George W. Bush at White House Oval Office ceremony during President Bush’s eight years in the White House.

For 2009 Raytheon Company will be the title sponsor of the MATHCOUNTS National Competition for the next three years from 2009 through 2011. Raytheon has partnered with MATHCOUNTS to increase middle school mathematics achievement for the past 13 years, and has donated significant financial contributions to help middle students become creative problem solvers and develop the skills needed to become the math and science leaders of the future.

Dr. Michael Chun and the Hawaii MATHCOUNTS Steering Committee would like to thank all the MATHLETES, their coaches, and all the volunteer proctors and scorers for participating. The volunteer proctors and scorers came from Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ASCE, ASME, and SAME. Without their help there would not be any competition.