Math team places in SCVMA

By Andrew Huynh

On March 18, Piedmont Hills math students competed once again in the 54th Annual SCVMA (Santa Clara Valley Mathematics Association) Math Field Day.

SCVMA is a team competition which encourages student and teacher enthusiasm about and involvement in mathematics. Piedmont Hills’s participants were the Pirate math team and other students. Students from Sierramont Middle School, part of the Berryessa Union School District, attended as well.

“We’re decently sized,” said co-captain Addison Chan, who is also one of the captains alongside sophomores Anne Ouyang and Sophia Xiao. The math team typically has 15 to 20 members who meet on Fridays, according to junior Michael Wang.

The event began at 8 am at West Valley College, but the actual competitions did not begin until 8:45 am. All contests ended at 10:30 am and the awards ceremony was held at 11am.

“I won sixth place, so I took home a trophy,” affirmed Addison. “Piedmont did really well this year. We took first place overall.”

Freshman Chujun Xu and Anne both took home trophies as well, obtaining first and sixth place in their respective categories.

The Pirate math aficionados had to practice in order to do well in the competitions, which allowed all students from sixth to twelfth grade participate. Subjects covered include Statistics, Algebra 2, Precalculus and Calculus.

“I did a lot of practice tests to prepare,” explained Michael. “I also really enjoyed the free bagels they gave out after.”

Although many may cry at the thought of voluntarily doing math outside of the classroom on weekends at competitions, the math team enjoys it.

“I like math because it’s challenging but also logical. There are always many ways to a problem, and clever solutions are always interesting to think about,” commented Addison. “It’s probably my favorite subject.”