The kindergarten to fifth grade division recorded 520 participants in the preliminary rounds held at Dandan Elementary School while 203 sixth to 12th graders joined the upper division competition held at Kagman Elementary School.
Reo Arriola, Math Court coordinator for the 6-12 division, said like the primary grade forensic competitions, Math Court has no national program affiliation.
However, Arriola said PSS is “ready and willing” to send representatives to a national competition.
It was earlier disclosed that CNMI Mathcounts competition, which is organized by a private group, may no longer participate in the national contest due to funding problems.
Arriola said budget is also a major concern for Math Court contest and PSS may have to look for alternative funding sources so that its students can participate in national events.
The 14 schools that joined Saturday’s event included Ladera International, Saipan International School, Saipan Community School, Calvary Christian Academy, Green Meadows and Golden Harvest.
The rest were public schools.
The next preliminary competitions for Math Court will be held in November, December and January.
These contests will choose the regional winners for each category.
Arriola said the contest format involves numbers, algebra, measurement geometry, data statistics and probability.
Last Saturday’s event was focused on 15 questions on numbers and algebra.
Other math categories will be highlighted in the next competitions and all of them will be combined in the regional event.
Arriola said Rota and Tinian, due to funding and logistics concerns, were not able to participate.
Funding for the contest came from the $1 registration fee per student.
Arriola said for the K-5 division, there were over 60 volunteers from PSS who helped conduct the event.
PSS and the Board of Education, despite funding problems, wants the Math Court to continue as a way of tracking the schools’ standards and benchmarks.
“This reflects what our students learn from their classroom teachers in accordance with the PSS standards and benchmarks,” Arriola said.
“The purpose of Math Court is to make sure that we encourage kids to love math and what better way to make them learn is to allow them to have fun by competing with each other,” he added.
Sixth graders Danica P. Domingo of Dandan Elementary and Emerson Feria from Koblerville Elementary said their yearly participation in the contest provide them with additional learning and knowledge about mathematics.
