Denman Junior High School’s MathCounts team found a winning equation again, taking a second straight third-place finish in the program’s Southeast Mississippi regional competition in Ellisville.
Finishing so well among the approximately 12 teams competing is a point of pride now for eighth-grader Johntavion Johnson.
“For me, it was really challenging.” Johnson said. “When we do math in class, we have our teacher helping us. At the competition, we had to use our knowledge on our own.”
When the third-place finish was announced, “I felt triumphant,” Johnson said. “We tried our best, and there’s nothing more we can do than our best.”
The 10-member competition team — mostly eighth-graders — picked from among 29 seventh- and eighth-graders overall, took part in three rounds of the contest. Two rounds are completed by all the students individually. For one round, the team works together.
The competition also contains a head-to-head round in which the top 25 percent of competitors, up to a maximum of 10, face off one-on-one.
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Competition questions stretch beyond regular eighth-grade math to concepts in algebra, geometry and other higher maths.
To prepare for the competition, “we had meetings, and we had a packet that we worked on,” said team member Justice Brown, also an eighth-grader.
The packet provided practice questions from the national MathCounts organization.
“It was so much harder than regular math class,” Brown said.
For Brown, being on the team wasn’t necessarily about liking math.
“I just like being on all the clubs,” she said.
For Johnson, however, it was all about the math.
“Math is my favorite subject, and I’m strong in it,” Johnson said. “When I heard there was a math team, it triggered something within me, and I had to do it.”
The team’s second-year coach, math teacher Derandel Allen, jokingly agreed that the team had a good coach to take the students to competition.
He went on to put praise where it belongs.
“This is a good bunch of kids,” said Allen, who is also an assistant football and track coach for the district. “They accepted the challenge. They were put to the test on some things they’d never seen before.
“This is the kind of thing that will help them expand their thinking to the level needed for success on the Common Core curriculum,” he said.
Allen said the team’s third-place finish also helps to show that the oft-bemoaned achievement gaps in education — between white and minority students, and between students from richer and poorer backgrounds — can be overcome.
“This is proof positive,” Allen said. “We were the only predominantly black team. We can compete with schools with more money, better facilities, better technology.”
Oak Grove Middle School, a predominantly white school in an affluent district, took first place in the competition. Petal Middle School, similarly situated, placed second.
“These kids can compete at any level,” Allen said. “They can do whatever they apply themselves to do.”
The eighth-graders moving on to McComb High next year will have the opportunity to try out for that school’s math and science team, which is a different program from MathCounts.
“I hope they all take a look at that when they get to the high school,” Allen said.
Students coming back to Denman next year also have more to look forward to.
“We’re going to have a robotics team coming,” Allen said. “The school has a drone club now. We’re working on expanding our technology at Denman.”
