Students turn math into fast-paced competition

February 5, 2016 at 12:06a.m.

CAMPBELL

Denise Mote said her late brother Michael “Mickey” Soroka would have been pleased to witness the scene Thursday 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.”

She added that it was refreshing to see students treat math as a fun extracurricular activity rather than as a chore.

“It’s nice for something to be recognized that isn’t art or sports,” Thomas said.

Vincent Steele and James Shaffer faced off in the seventh-grade competition. They may have been competitors, but both boys agreed on their love of math.

“I came here because I love math, especially multiplication” Vincent said. “The fastness of the game makes it hard, but it also makes it fun.”