Petway Sweeps Top 4 Spots in Both Divisions of Math 24 Tournament

Students from the new Petway Elementary School swept the top four places in both the grade four and grade five division of 12th annual Math 24 game tournament finals held Saturday at Durand Elementary School.

In all, Petway grabbed 17 of the top 20 spots in the tournament, which attracted a near capacity crowd of parents, other family members and friends according to Mrs. Donna Nedohon, Supervisor of Instruction for mathematics. Tournament coordinator is Roberta Porcelli of Petway School.

Anna Marie Mainiero won first place in the grade five division and was awarded a medal and will later receive a $100 U.S. Savings Bond from the Vineland Board of Education. The other medal winners were Anna Karen Mejia, second place, Tyler Adams, third place, and Alina Guseva, in fourth place. Those finishing in second through fourth place will also receive $50 Savings Bonds. All four medal winners are Petway students.

In the grade four contest, Mark Novatorsky won first place, a blue ribbon-medal and will later receive a $100 U.S. Savings Bond. Runner-up was Timothy Williams, while Sydney Starn and Christpher Wainwright were third, and fourth-place finishers, respectively. As in the other division, those finishing in second through fourth place will also receive $50 Savings Bonds. Again, all four medal winners are Petway students.

“We are starting a new tradition of excellence,” said Mrs. Patricia Phillips, Petway principal. “We have awesome teachers – our coaches for the Math24 (Jen Basile and Greg Hughes) give 120 percent.”

Phillips said the competition at the school level is “pretty intense” so it was no surprise that the Petway students did so well at the district level. The principal also credited the work of the advisors, Rosemarie Spada and Marla Gruber, for Petway’s strong performance.

The tournament is divided into three rounds of play for grade 4 and four rounds for the grade 5 contestants. Students solve math problems on cards, using four numbers and any four of the mathematical operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to make a final answer of 24.

Participants vie against three other players in a timed round competing to solve cards and earn points. At the end of the first two rounds, the number of participants is cut and those remaining students compete in a final round to determine the top four medal winners.
Students are introduced to the game in the beginning of the year, which has proven to be very popular. The game helps to provide students with a solid foundation of math skills and addresses many of the core curriculum standards in mathematics. Students not only practice basic math facts in the areas of whole numbers, fractions, decimals, exponents, and algebra, they become adept at mental math, communicating mathematically, validating their thinking, and recognizing multiple ways to solve problems. The added benefit is that all this thinking and problem solving is disguised as a game, thereby helping to create a new generation of thinkers.