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Since it started on February 18th in Corozal, the third Math Olympiad has been hopping across the country faster than an index finger on a calculator. Today it came to a crescendo when the National Finals were held. Six regional champions, the best young mathematical minds in the country converged on the City Center. Who would endure the wrath of the math? Jacqueline Godwin counted down to the victory.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
It took just over three hours for the champion high school students to be declared the 2009 Math Olympiad Champion and while many were banking on a sure win for either the young men of Saint John’s College, the young ladies of Saint Catherine’s Academy or the defending 2008 champs from Corozal Community College - in the end it was the team from the west more specifically the students of Belize Christian Academy who won it all.

Julie, Winning Student – BCA
“I didn’t really but I tried my best to do everything the best that I can and I didn’t really expect it but I am proud of my school.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
How much of a challenge was it?

Julie,
“It was kind of challenging at first and then it was okay. But some of the questions were a little bit harder than the regionals.”

Ann Jeon, Winning Student – BCA
“We are one family so we really worked hard at our house, whenever we had left over time, we worked together as a team to win the race and we really didn’t expect much today to win but I guess all our team spirit.”

Illca Jacobs, Winning Student – BCA
“We practiced a lot and we really found it challenging although we didn’t expect to win at the end after all we did so we are really proud of ourselves and we are really happy that we probably should go next year and we are really confident about this. So it was a great challenge.”

Three years ago the Social Security Board embarked on a objective that some would say would be a challenge but judging from the crowd that has gathered inside the Belize City Center and the noise at this annual competition has generated, the SSB strongly believes that it has reached that goal of stimulating enthusiasm and critical thinking through mathematical creativity.

Merlene Martinez, CEO – SSB
“Well that is exactly the point, that we wanted to stimulate that kind of excitement in math and while there were some expectations that it would happen, the extent to which it has happened has surprised us and pleasantly so. So we are surprised.”

So too were the defending champs from Corozal Community College.

Shanira Hoare, Student – CCC
“I think it was more nervousness. It is very very intimidating and the other colleges were very very good and I am amazed at how well they did and with all the nervousness and everything and the fact that we were defending champions got to us also but we studied hard and we tried and I really loved my team, they were awesome and I couldn’t ask for a better team.”

Esther Sun, Student – CCC
“I couldn’t believe that they would be very strong because when we came here we were confident but we also knew that we could either win or lose.”

It was also an emotional loss for the girls from SJC but who did manage to capture third place.

Signa Mahung, Student – SCA
“We were overconfident in ourselves.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
I know it’s pretty frustrating, it is emotional, but life continues. Just tell us about the preparation that you guys did for it.

Signa Mahung,
“We practiced really hard, we practiced a lot more than we usually need to be practicing. We practiced all day yesterday and all before and we just got overconfident.”

The SJC students also took a gamble that cost them the big win - something they did at the first Math Olympiad completion in 2007 – but it didn’t work today.

Jacqueline Godwin,
What went wrong here you believe?

Troy Lopez, Student – SJC
“It was the wager because we initially earned more points than Belize Christian Academy and St. Catherine’s and so it was only the wager we needed to work on and we thought we knew it before we bet 750 points but we got it wrong.”

Simeon Lopez, Judge
“I have been with the Math Olympiad since its inception three years ago, I’ve always been assisting the Social Security Board and this year I am seeing the confidence of the participants growing now. They are getting really really confident and it is very impressive this year.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
It looks like these students they come really prepared to the point that each one of them has their own strategy as to how they will confront a specific problem.

Simeon Lopez,
“That’s true and they know that the questions are set from the CSEC syllabus and the teachers know that so they prepared them very well.”

Merlene Martinez,
“It is such a reflection of their mathematical skills because they were able to strategize and to reason and to say, ‘okay I will wager so much.’ So that has added to the suspense of the competition and it has shown that they don’t only add 1 and 1 or 2x + 4 but they are able to strategize and reason on how they go about winning.”

The Ministry of Education believes that what makes the Math Olympiad such a huge success is its interactive approach, a method they would want to see utilized at the primary level.

Allan Genitty, Deputy Chief Education Officer
“If teachers are not careful, they tend to do the normal chalk and talk approach to mathematics which historically is the worst method in trying to get students to learn. So I think this approach whereby students become a lot more involved really brings about a more meaningful learning in regards to the subject mathematics.”

Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7News.

Belize Christian Academy topped the competition with 2600 points. SJC came in second with 1850 points and SCA closely followed with 1800 points.