TRUMBULL COUNTY Pupils have fun with equations

The program is also open to pupils not in the gifted and talented programs.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- Vince Melillo and Joshua Rounds stared at the dice in front of them, trying to decide whether to agree with Rachel Roberts or Katelynn Bacher.
Could the colored cubes with numbers and mathematical symbols in front of them be manipulated some way to come up with the answer of four?
Eighth-grader Vince and seventh-grader Joshua, both pupils at Niles Middle School, decided they could, and cast their votes for Katelynn, a seventh-grader at Trumbull Arts Academy. It turns out they were right and were all awarded 10 points. Rachel, a sixth-grade pupil at Niles Middle School, still walked away with six points.
It's a scene that was mimicked at several other tables Tuesday throughout the Garden Brook Banquet Center in Cortland, where roughly 300 pupils in fifth through eighth grades from schools throughout Trumbull County played "Equations: The Game of Creative Mathematics."
The preteens, just like the more than 300 of their peers the week before, played round after round of the game, using square roots, exponents, algebra and other mathematical tools and skills to earn the highest score for themselves and their classmates.
How this helped
Rachel and the others at her station all agreed the game has improved their math skills, and Vince seemed to enjoy the competitive nature of the ever-changing game.
"It's hard when you think you have a really good equation, but you are missing one cube," Vince said.
"I know, I hate that," added Katelynn.
Sponsored by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, the countywide competition brings in pupils from fifth through eighth grades with various skill levels in math to see how they fare.
"It's just great that we have so many kids here who do want to participate," said Michele Krisher, supervisor for gifted and talented programs at the educational center.
During the school year, the pupils play the game at their home schools, honing their math skills and trying to create a better mathematical equation than the others, she said. For the past 13 years, pupils from almost every district in the county have gathered for one day to test their skills against others.
What teacher said
"It's great, because it lets them see how creative they can be with math," said Leslie Sheridan, a sixth-grade math teacher at Neal Middle School in the Mathews Local School District.
Pupils there practice at least once a week for a minimum of one hour after school, she said. Like most of the schools in Trumbull County, the practices and competitions are open to any student interested in math -- not just gifted and talented students.
"It's open to anyone who wants to play and wants to learn more about math," Sheridan said. "And they really like the idea of trying to stump a peer by coming up with a better equation."
slshaulis@vindy.com