5 Mahoning districts compete in Soroka math tourney tonight

CAMPBELL

Denise Mote said her late brother Michael “Mickey” Soroka would have been pleased to witness the scene this evening in the gymnasium of Campbell K-7 school.

“He would have loved to see so much math happening,” Mote said.

Students from five Mahoning County school districts put their arithmetic skills to the test as they competed for prizes in a tournament-style competition.

The Michael “Mickey” Soroka Charitable Foundation, established in memory of Mote’s brother, sponsored the event.

Soroka, a longtime math teacher for Campbell City Schools and himself a graduate of Campbell Memorial High School, died in 2011. He was 49.

But his memory lived on as students in grades four through eight competed in the “24 Game.” The game challenges participants to use equations to arrive at 24 with the numbers provided to them.

Teri Thomas, a coordinator of the annual tournament and a professor of mathematics at Stark State College in Canton, noted that the fast-paced nature of the game forces students to draw on their rote arithmetic skills.

“Adding, multiplying, subtracting and dividing – we want these skills to become almost second-nature to them,” Thomas said. “I don’t care what their career is going to be, they are going to need math at some point.”

Read more about the event in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.