Stephen Chin and Spencer Moore of St Ignatius Catholic School emerged winners of the annual senior mathematics competition.

There was a tie amongst three students for second place – John Gracey of Grace Christian Academy, Alain Mudeen of St Ignatius and Ariel Thompson of Cayman Brac High.

The winners were presented with cash prizes and T-shirts were also given to all the contestants.

The competition, sponsored by Fidelity Bank, took place at St George’s Anglican Pre-school located on Eastern Avenue on Wednesday, 14 February. In this competition, the contestants were students between the ages of 14 and 16.

Dr Desiree Charles, Education Officer in charge of the Math Education Department, facilitated the event.

According to Dr Charles, the aim of the mathematics competition is to promote that subject in schools.

She said the competition has been going on for about 15 years, however the format has since then changed.

The competition was conducted in three rounds- the first consisted of a series of questions that each child had to answer; the second involved individual questioning, where each student had to answer a total of four questions; and the final was the “Toss Up” round where questions were given at random and students had to hit a buzzer when they figured out the answer. This round was quite challenging as students had to think quickly and call out the answers.

John Gray High, Heritage High and Cayman Academy were the other schools that participated in the competition. The students who represented their schools were those who made it to the finals during a series of competitions. 

Shirley Broderick, retired Head of Maths at George Hicks High School judged the event and Education Officer Fred Speirs timed the competition.

A Maths Fair will also be held on Saturday, 17 February beginning at 10:00 am at the Mary Miller Hall.

christine@caymannetnews.com