Students at

both schools have the opportunity to become involved in Math Counts by

joining the Math Club. Anyone who is interested in math can join the clubs.

Each school

selects a four-person team by testing each student in the club. The four

students with the highest scores make up that school's Math Counts team,

but anyone who wants to participate as an individual competitor can do

so. Fayette Middle had several students who placed individually: Matt

Park, third place; Dee Humphrey, fourth place; Sara McGlothlin, fifth

place, and Carl Belshause, eighth place.

Placing at

the competition is no easy task. The questions are extremely difficult

and time limits are placed on formulating the answers. There are three

rounds to the competition: the individual round where problems are solved

without using a calculator, target round which allows students to use

a calculator and team round where a calculator is used and competitors

tap the knowledge of their teammates to find answers. On the individual

round, competitors have 40 minutes to answer 30 problems, the target round

gets six minutes for every two problems (four pair total) and the team

round allows for 20 minutes for 10 problems.

Jane Hannon,

eighth grade math teacher and Math Counts coach at Fayette Middle, said

sometimes the problems the students are asked to solve stump her.

"Some

of these problems I can't solve. I have to get help from the students,"

Hannon said. "I have learned a lot from being involved in Math Counts.

It has made me a better teacher."

Fayette Middle

is the only public school from Coweta, Henry and Fayette counties to make

it to the state competition Saturday.

"I was

not surprised that we took first place. We had been doing well during

practice and I knew that we would succeed at the competition," Hannon

said.

Hannon's students

have been practicing once a day after school for one hour since September

in order to prepare for the regional contest. Now that they have won a

place in the state competition, Hannon says she hopes that her students

will make it to the national level this year.

At the state

level, Math Counts takes the four highest scoring individuals and forms

a team for the state regardless of the schools the students represent.

Last year no students from Fayette were on the team that went to the nationals.

"I want

to see our students make the team, but I am just hoping that we can get

as close to the top five as we can," Hannon added.

Although Rising

Starr Middle did well in the regional competition with its fourth place

finish, only the first place winners are allowed to advance to the state

round. However, team coaches Sue Ellen Buchanan, Amy McAfee and Carol

Taylor said that they are pleased with the fourth place finish considering

the team had only been practicing for the competition since January.

"We are

extremely proud of our team. They spent hours doing math and have worked

very hard for us," said Buchanan. "One of the reasons we're

so proud is that we have only been practicing since January where other

schools started in September. We had less time to prepare but we still

managed to earn a high placement."

Buchanan, who

teaches eighth grade math, and McAfee, a student teacher, said they incorporated

some Math Counts problems into the regular classroom curriculum so that

the students on the team were able to get in some extra practice.

"We hope

that our fourth place victory will help spark an interest among other

students about joining the math club and participating in Math Counts

next year," said Buchanan.

The team members

from the two schools are listed below.

Fayette Middle

School

Team: Carl

Belshause, Matt (Sung Jun) Park, Dee Humphrey and Sara McGlothlin.

Participants

competing individually were Nia Chau, Taylor Barnes, Russell McCord, Charlie

Murphy, Carl Belshause, Matt (Sung Jun) Park, Dee Humphrey and Sara McGlothlin.

Alternates

were Jimmy McCullaugh and Yvonne Wong.

Rising Starr

Middle School

Team: Josh

Nichols, Bradley Morris, Kelly Darr and Jordan Grace.

Participants

competing individually were Bryan Martin and Daniel Shankle.