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Monday, March 21, 2011

First Annual Math Fair: Math in the real world


Freshman Logan Battreall explains his math fair project to second graders Brayden Stockman, Alex Cheney and Zach Benson. Battreall's project was about finding the maximum weight a person should be able to lift. (Alexa Wheaton photo) 

by Rachel Ranfeld
On March 14, Montezuma held its first annual Math Fair to celebrate Pi Day. Students in grades 7-12 presented their math projects to elementary students from 2:30-3:30  p.m. and then to the rest of the community from 5-7 p.m. 
While the community participated in a 3.14 mile run/walk around the track, judges rated the students’ project boards with  I, II or III ratings. Of 116 participants, 34 students were awarded blue “I” ribbons, 45 red “II” ribbons and 37 white “III” ribbons.
In the silent pie auction, 14 pies were sold for a total of $244.54 during the fair with the largest amount contributed by the candy bar pie that sold for $37. This money will fund a $100 math scholarship.
There was also a pi-reciting contest at 6:28 p.m. to determine who could remember the most digits of pi. Elizabeth Ostrem won this contest with a shocking 55 digits, an outstanding record at Montezuma.
Math teachers Allison Pargeon, Mark Thomsen and Andy Erselius garnered Pi Day celebration ideas on the Internet to create the successful night of promoting math outside the classroom. They believe the most interesting things were learning how math is used outside the classroom while listening to student presentations and how many students participated in the run/walk.

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