Photos Courtesy of Mid-Prarie CSD

Two Mid-Prairie students made their way to College Station, Texas to participate at the Elementary Mathleague National Championships.

Earlier this summer, fifth graders Griffin Caskey and Landon Humble joined 391 other students in 3rd-6th grades from around the U.S., the Philippines, Saipan, and Indonesia. Rebecca Yoder spearheaded the program and says that it’s helpful for students to be able to see how their skills line up with those from around the world, “It’s really great for them to be able to recognize their own strengths, but also realize that there’s always room for growing. One thing we really like about how we set up our program is the emphasis on continual growth. A lot of the kids that are in the program do have great strength in math. They really enjoy having this challenge and seeing problems that they might not have necessarily seen before.”

The elementary level competition included five rounds that tested students’ abilities to solve math problems mentally and complete multiple choice questions. The student pool started with 3,010 students nationwide. From there, 1,973 advanced to the state level. That field was cut down to 391 to compete at the national stage. Caskey and Humble joined nine other Iowa students. This was the first year the Hawkeye State was represented at the competition.