High School Math Team Rises To The Challenge

By Andrew Rote

Have you ever been stuck on a math problem and had a really hard time solving it? Some people might toss it aside and become frustrated, but one group of students at Newtown High School rises to the challenge.

Advised by Eugene Hall and Becky Eide, the math team has recently become very successful. This year, the team finished seventh place in the Fairfield County Math League.

“The students are getting to know their strengths and weaknesses,” Miss Eide said. She feels that much of the success is due to members’ familiarity with one another.

Of the 12 members on the math team, five are members of the A-Team. To be one of this group whose scores count for the competitions, a student would have to be a “top-five tester” in Newtown.

The math team meets after school each Wednesday to practice problems, test to try to achieve the A-Team, and eat food, which is considered by many members to be one of the most positive traits of the club.

The meets prepare the Math Team for the countywide competitions. There are six contests and the April 2 meet at Dow Chemical/Union Carbide in Danbury marked the final match.

“I like to bring challenging problems to kids to give them the opportunity to better their math abilities,” said Mr Hall.

This is the NHS math team’s fourth year.

“I did math team in middle school and was upset that there was none in high school,” said senior and four-year member Kathy Deng. Mr Hall decided to start the club soon after.

Kathy enjoys the team because she loves the people she is with, as well as the advisors, and she also gets the opportunity to see friends from other schools at the competitions.

Senior Andrew Portnoy is in his fourth year as well.

“I enjoy math,” he said, explaining his reason for joining. He added, “I felt that I could help represent my school.”

Andrew is currently the second-highest scoring senior in the county and was invited to the annual national competition at Penn State for a second time. He will be with other top-scorers in the state to participate on the Connecticut team in June.

Brendan Kruegar, a junior, is in his third year of math team. He originally joined due to his interest in math and he became the top sophomore in Fairfield County last year.

“I heard about it and I enjoy math,” said sophomore and second-year member Larry Dworkin of why he joined. Larry was one of the top scorers last year. He added that math team gave him the chance to meet people during his freshman year.

Every Wednesday, these students continue to meet and challenge themselves with harder math problems. Math team has proved to be both educational and fun for the members.

“I recommend it for those interested in math,” Andrew said, “and it’s a great experience.”