Gleniti ‘mathletes’ scoop the double

Gleniti School students have proven they can be counted on – with eight representatives winning two trophies at the Alpine Energy Aoraki Mathematics Competition.

The mathematic challenge began about 20 years ago and involves contestants solving 20 maths questions in 30 minutes.

The competition, held this week, comprised year 7 and 8 pupils from South Canterbury competing in teams of four.

Teacher-in-charge at Gleniti School Heather Hinton said she was ‘‘super proud’’ to see Gleniti teams winning the two top prizes.

A spokesperson from the competition said a school winning both levels in one night did not happen very often.

Twenty-six schools competed in the year 7 competition, and 31 teams in the year 8.

‘‘We’re really happy with the two teams. We do really well in sport, and it’s nice to see we do well in academia as well.

‘‘As a school we are really proud. The questions can be very difficult, and they have to work as a team.’’

The year 7 team managed to get 18 correct of the 20 questions, and the year 8 team ‘‘just cleaned it up’’ getting all the questions correct under the half hour time pressure.

Hinton said that ‘‘since it’s problemsolving, they have to understand the vocabulary as well’’. The team’s also had a designated runner who would bring the answer to judge.

If the answer is correct, they are given a new maths problem to solve, Hinton said.

‘‘It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s noisy, it’s fast.’’