The Newburgh Enlarged City School District’s final math meet of the school year was held in the Board of Education auditorium on Thursday. The meet was an elaborate escape room challenge where 81 fifth-graders from across the District participated to win.
The escape room was set up with 15 rooms manned by employees from the District. Each room featured a math problem the teams had to work on together to solve. Teams had to explain the method they used to obtain their answer before earning a key to move onto the next room. The team to complete each room first and acquire all of the keys won the challenge.
First place for the math meet school year in its entirety went to The Algebrats. The Rolling Crimsons earned second place, followed by The Real Deals in third place. The Algebrats will be honored at the next Board of Education meeting.
In addition to winning the meet for the season, The Algebrats won first place in the escape room challenge.
Each team was comprised of nine students consisting of one from each school. During each of the previous meets, students worked in groups of three within each team to solve and communicate their mathematical understanding of various problems. Students were scored on mathematical knowledge, strategic thinking, and communication. Points were accumulated during each competition.