Answer: 17 laps
Problem: A rectangular tile measures 3 inches by 4 inches. What is the fewest number of these tiles that are needed to completely cover a rectangular region that is 2 feet by 5 feet?
Answer: 120 tiles
Derek Chew made it look easy Saturday.
The eighth-grader from Omaha's Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School led his school to victory in the annual Nebraska MathCounts Eastern Chapter regional middle school competition in Omaha.
Chew won the high-pressure countdown round, where the day's top-scoring students competed head-to-head, and he won top individual honors among 230 students from 31 schools.
"It feels great," said Derek, who also won last year's countdown round. "The work paid off."
The competition is sponsored by the Nebraska Society of Professional Engineers and draws students from across the Omaha metropolitan area to compete in target, sprint and team rounds.
Derek said he prepared for the competition by studying hundreds of previous MathCounts problems. In 2007, his older brother, Darren, made it to the national MathCounts competition, he said. Derek said he hopes to make it there too, but first he'll need to get through next month's Nebraska state competition, which will feature all the state's best mathletes.
Derek said his aptitude for math surfaced early. At his old school, St. Vincent de Paul, the facilitator of the gifted program pulled him out of kindergarten for higher-level math instruction, he said.
Dawson Siemonsma, a 13-year-old from Plattsmouth Middle School, faced Derek in the countdown round. That round has a game-show format, with questions projected onto a screen and students buzzing in fast.
Dawson called the experience "nerve-racking."
"It's even worse when you're up against Derek," he said.
Here are Saturday's top finishers. The top four teams, and select individuals not on those teams, advance to next month's Nebraska state MathCounts competition:
Top 10 teams
1. Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School; 2. St. Vincent de Paul; 3. St. Margaret Mary; 4. Brownell-Talbot; 5. Russell Middle School; 6. St. Stephen the Martyr; 7. Fort Calhoun Middle School; 8. Mary Our Queen; 9. Bennington Junior-Senior High School; 10. Westside Middle School.
Top 10 individuals
1. Derek Chew, Buffett; 2. Michael Svolos, St. Margaret Mary; 3. Don Nguyen, St. Vincent de Paul; 4. Shane Grode, St. Margaret Mary; 5. Edward Yuan, Russell; 6. Lindon Liu, Westside; 7. Adam Dejka, Papillion Junior High; 8. Dawson Siemonsma, Plattsmouth Middle School; 9. Adi Telikicherla, Brownell-Talbot; 10. Matthew Gromowsky, Mary Our Queen.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
