Pi Day celebrated at annual Wabash County math contest at MU

Manchester, Northfield, Southfield and Wabash students competed

NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – On Pi Day, March 14, students from across Wabash County gathered at Manchester University in celebration of all things pi. (The date, 3/14, is the first three digits of pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.)

Eighty students – 10 from seventh grade and 10 from eighth grade from each of Wabash County’s junior high and middle schools – assembled to test their math skills in the 2017 Wabash County Junior High Math Contest. Competing schools were Manchester, Northfield and Southwood junior-senior high schools and Wabash Middle School.

Students competed for individual awards, combining their scores from two events.  First was a 30-question written test.  Second was a flash round, with questions projected on a screen, where students had limited time to answer each. The top three individual finishers in each grade received trophies and Amazon gift cards.

The seventh-grade trophies went to: 1st Gabriel Case (Manchester), 2nd Kyle Wynn (Northfield) and 3rd Kyleigh Brown (Northfield). The eighth-grade winners were: 1st Elise Gottschalk, 2nd Emma Bowling, and 3rd Trinnity Mitchell, all from Northfield.

Students also competed in a team event, with students from different schools randomly assigned to teams.  Because this year’s contest was held on Pi Day, team questions revolved around pi, pies and circles.  For example, “At Patty’s Pizza Palace, the crust of a large pizza covers twice the area of a small pizza. Compute the ratio of the radius of a large pizza to the radius of a small pizza.”

The top team award went to Emily Stambaugh (Manchester), Kyle Wynn (Northfield) and Mason Yentes (Southwood).  Students not only mentally dined on pi throughout the contest, they also feasted on pizza pie while anticipating the awarding of prizes.

Manchester University’s mathematics faculty graded the competition and MU students assisted with the contest.  The Mathematics and Computer Science chair, Dr. James Brumbaugh-Smith, coordinated the event. Also assisting were junior high math teachers Jill Glasscock and Vindy Pace (Northfield), Carl Pace (Southwood), Marla Parson and Jason Doehrman (Manchester), and Justin Denney and Joey Till (Wabash).

Manchester University offers more than 60 areas of academic study in undergraduate programs, a Master of Science in Pharmacogenomics, a Master of Athletic Training and a four-year professional Doctor of Pharmacy. Its Mathematics and Computer Science Department offers baccalaureate degrees in mathematics, mathematics education and software engineering.

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Contact: Jim Brumbaugh-Smith
Telephone: 260-982-5011
Email: jpbrumbaugh-smith@manchester.edu

Website: www.manchester.edu

March 2017