Schools
El Rodeo Students Place in Regional Math Competition
The school's "Mathletes" outperformed their opponents with a dominating finish.
Students from the math club made a strong showing at a Los Angeles mathematics competition Saturday, taking seven of the top 10 spots.
El Rodeo fifth-grade students Philip Kim and Sebastian Bryant were the top two finishers at the Math Matters contest on Jan. 27 at Magnolia Science Academy in L.A. Math Matters is a competition held in five western states for fourth- and fifth-grade students. Participants are given 15 math problems to solve in 30 minutes.
“They worked hard at home by themselves and with their families to prepare,” El Rodeo fifth-grade teacher and math club leader Sara Mednick said about the students. Mednick received a Math Matters award for her team's success at the competition.
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The El Rodeo math club meets every other week during lunch to play math games and complete logic problems. In recent weeks “we met after school for an hour once a week where the students could ask questions and learn strategies from both their peers and myself,” Mednick said.
El Rodeo is the only Beverly Hills K-8 school with a math club, called Mathletes. The success of the program could spur other city schools to start such a club. Mathletes is sponsored by the El Rodeo PTA and gets some of its funding from the , according to El Rodeo parent and Mathletes organizer Cindy Dubin.
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Ten El Rodeo fifth-grade students participated in Math Matters, while two other students prepared with the club but could not attend the event, Mednick said.
Mednick is now helping the Mathletes prepare for its next regional competition, a math olympiad at Linwood Howe Elementary School in Culver City on March 17. The Linwood Howe Math Olympiads is the only Southern California tournament for elementary students that is sanctioned by the Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools organization.
Other El Rodeo students who placed at Math Matters are Isiah Beenhouwer (4th place), Sean Toobi (5th), Jordan Laredo (7th), Jordan Kramer (9th) and Malikeh Sharifi (10th). El Rodeo fifth-grade students Will Berlin, Ava Payman and Jaime Jacoby also participated.
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