San Pedro High School of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, is the winner of the Social Security Board’s (SSB) Math Olympiad 2010, the fourth annual competition, held at the University of Belize Gymnasium in Belmopan this morning.
San Pedro, finishing with 5,000 points, bested five other schools, including former winners St. John’s College, Linda Vista High and Muffles College of Orange Walk; Stann Creek Ecumenical of Dangriga, and defending champions Belize Christian Academy from the Belmopan area, who could only manage runner-up position this year with 4,400 points.
Muffles was third, with 4,000 points.
The winning school was represented in the junior division by Giovanni Kay and Emilie Gomez, and in the senior division by Jing Han and Vicky Balam. Walter Tut, Lucio Nunez and Cindy Novelo were the alternates. They took home notebook computers, gold medals, plaques and certificates, while the school received an LCD projector, 72-inch tripod projector screen and the official championship trophy.
Balam told KREM News’ Deseree Cain that they would have wagered more, but were too nervous and worried about how the other teams would maneuver in the final round.
The Math Olympiad, first run in 2007, tests the mathematics skills of high school students in categories ranging from sets to consumer arithmetic, to vectors and matrices.
Played in a format similar to the U.S. game show Jeopardy! (with a similar board, but static point values), the Olympiad this year had the participation of 39 secondary schools grouped geographically in six zones: North A and B; Central A and B; West and South.
Preliminary rounds were held in February, where San Pedro High emerged as surprise Central A champions, routing City powerhouses St. Catherine Academy and Wesley College in their group.
The match was close and tense, and after Match 2, San Pedro led Muffles by only 100 points, 3500-3400, with Belize Christian in third. All three schools got the final question correct, but Muffles only wagered 600 points to 1,500 for San Pedro, meaning they could not catch up. Belize Christian gambled all of their 2,200 points, but it was only enough for second place.
BCA received $500, a printer and trophy, while the individual representatives received $500 each, a flash drive, silver medal, certificate and plaque.
Muffles took home $400, a printer and a trophy, while their representatives each won $300, a flash drive, and bronze medal, plaque and certificate.
All other students received $125, a flash drive and certificate of participation, and alternates $75 and certificate.
The Math Olympiad was covered live for the fourth consecutive year by our colleagues at KREM Radio (Deseree Cain and Steve Anthony, and special guest analysts), and television broadcaster was PLUS TV of Belmopan.