Before the official launch of the Hoosier Math Cup Tuesday, a pre-launch kickoff was celebrated Thursday morning at Warsaw Community High School.
The Hoosier Math Cup is a friendly competition designed to motivate kids in fifth through 12th grade to improve their math skills, according to a press release from Apangea Learning.
"Apangea's Hoosier Math Cup will bring together students across the state in a fun and challenging competition that also highlights their math proficiency," Dr. Tony Bennett, Indiana superintendent of public instruction, said in the release. "This is just one example of Apangea's efforts to provide rigorous, relevant interventions to improve math achievement for students in some of our highest-need middle and high schools."
Bennett officially will launch the Hoosier Math Cup Tuesday at 9 a.m. at Greenwood Middle School with a simultaneous launch at Thomas Carr Howe Community High School in Indianapolis.
During the month-long contest, classes will log on to Apangea's online supplemental instructional tutoring program to compete, according to the release. The winning class receives the Hoosier Math Cup trophy and a state championship prize. The contest also features regional class champions and individual student winners.
Prizes will include an iPad, Nintendo Wii Bundles, iPod Touches or $200 gift cards.
WCHS was one of four selected schools to host pre-launch pep rallies, with Warsaw's being Thursday.
Laura Wilson, Apangea Learning program manager, Indianapolis, said students use Apangea software in their math classes to help them improve and pass their end-of-course assessments. Students must pass the assessments to graduate high school.
Wilson was present at the pre-launch Thursday to award students for how well they've done to date, to keep them encouraged and interested for the rest of the year. The Indiana Department of Education bought 35,000 Apangea licenses and WCHS has 100 of them, she said.
WCHS is in 12th place out of more than 60 high schools in terms of the work put in, she said.
She recognized students who passed all their work completed so far. Those students included Cesar Bautista, Marina Manges, Tasha Graber, George Chesterfield, Charissa Heeter, Frank Shell, Corina Bill, Eli Hernandez, Dolores Melendez, Sandra Sanchez, Katherine Utley and Haley Ward.
Jennifer Shepherd, WCHS assistant principal, commended all the students present for the work they were doing.
"The goal is to help you pass end-of-course assessment in December so you can graduate," Shepherd said.
Warsaw students have solved 14,418 problems; worked 740 total hours on the system; passed 292 threads; and earned 148,841 total points, Shepherd said.
"We have a lot of time to kick some butt," she said.
The Apangea program aligns the same concepts, goals and objectives students want to have for the Core 40 diploma, Shepherd said.
If 100 percent of the students at Thursday's event pass the end-of-course assessment, Shepherd said they will have a pizza party. She told the students to encourage each other.
Wilson then presented three awards to students for their usage of Apangea. Receiving gift cards were Katie Burns, Kyla Sloan and Axcari Salazar.
Five students were selected to compete in a math contest on laptops. Winning with 170 points was Stephen Prater. Besides a gift card, he won t-shirts for his entire math class.
Mr. Hepler won a $25 Visa gift card for being the teacher whose students use Apangea the most. His students solved 5,445 problems.
For more information about Apangea Learning, visit the website at www.apangealearning.com; or visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/ApangeaMathIndiana for more information about the Hoosier Math Cup.
