PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY FOR MATH OLYMPIAD

Final preparations are ongoing for the 2011 edition of the Belize Math Olympiad sponsored by the Social Security Board. Started in 2007, this is the fifth consecutive year that high schools countrywide will be taking part in the competition, which tests the participants’ skills and abilities in mathematics.; The competition will kick off next week Wednesday in Belmopan. Program Coordinator for the Belize Math Olympiad is Leticia Vega.
LETICIA VEGA – Coordinator, Belize Math Olympiad
"The game itself involves all High Schools, and what we do is we, in the form of a game, we try to encourage students to participate and at the same time review for their CXC Mathematics Exam. I really compliment all High Schools for their involvement. This year we are having forty High Schools, it's a record for all the years, and they have shown a lot of enthusiasm for the game itself and also the, and also share, you know that enthusiasm of bringing it as much support during the game, so you can see them sometimes with their cheerleaders, their mascots and a lot of their support in the game, so I guess it has been highly welcomed, and we are trying to also as a Country to reap the benefits of it through I would say a better performance in the area of Mathematics."
40 schools country wide will be taking part in this year’s competition and they have been divided into 5 different regions. Each region will have their eliminations rounds on various dates. According to Vega, the winners will get a laptop computer each, amongst other prizes."
LETICIA VEGA
"We divide them in the different regions, so we have the Northern Region, we have the Central Region, the Western and the Southern Regions. Now Belize Math Olympiad Game can only hold a maximum of ten High Schools in any given game, so if a region has more than ten High Schools, for example Central Region, we divide that whole number of Schools into two groups. From there we have our schedule of Competitions. Belize Math Olympiad Season is actually February and March. And we are starting or kicking off our first game next year, sorry, next week on Wednesday at the UB Gymnasium in Belmopan. We are starting with the West, and we are having five regional competitions this year and then the final one will be the National Competition on March ninth at the UB Gymnasium as well. We have very attractive prizes for everyone, including the Regionals and the National, but what the National Champions get, that means the first place out of all the forty High Schools competing this year, the School that ranks top, each participant, because each School, the game is in such a way that each School has four participants, so the National Champ will have four team members winning. Each of them gets a laptop computer, along of course with all the trophies, the plaques, the medals. We have a whole I would say a bag of Belize Math Olympiad promotional items, including Scientific Calculators, other things they can use. The High School itself gets a projector and a screen for them to have. Then we have a lot of attractive prizes for all the rest. Everybody gets something.”
The defending champion for the Belize Math Olympiad is the San Pedro High School.
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