It was the battle of the brains at Jones County Junior College Wednesday as high school students from 21 area high schools gathered at JCJC’s Ronald Whitehead Advanced Technology Center to vie for the title of the “No. 1 Math Bowl Team” in the region.

The title is awarded to the winner of the college’s annual High School Math Quiz Bowl, which brings math whiz kids together to compete for trophies and prizes. This year’s math bowl included teams from Wayne County, Taylorsville, Perry Central , Laurel, Richton, Bay Springs, Enterprise, Raleigh, Quitman, Northeast Jones, Collins, Greene County, Seminary, South Jones, Lawrence County, Mize, and West Jones high schools, as well as Wayne Academy, Laurel Christian School, Stringer Attendance Center, and Sylva Bay Academy.

“Last year we had 15 schools to participate,” said Math Bowl Coordinator Jessica Bunch. “We are glad to see an increase in participants this year, especially Lawrence County, who came a distance to be here for the competition today.”

Trophies were given to the first and second place teams. In addition, seniors on the first and second place teams, who participated in the competition, received scholarship awards that are to be applied to future expenses at JCJC. These scholarships are given in addition to any scholarships students have already received or will receive at the college.

At the end of the competition, Laurel High School was the first place winner, while Stringer Attendance Center placed second.

Caroline Kelly, JCJC’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement, said members of the first and second place teams, as well as their faculty sponsors, received $5,500 in prize money from contributing sponsors. According to Kelly, Laurel Realtor Chris Wilson was instrumental in securing funds for the prizes.

“This money will go straight to the teachers and students,” said Kelly. “The teacher for the top team will receive $1,000 and the teacher for the second place team will receive $500.”

Wilson said the cash prizes were implemented to show the students and teachers how much the community appreciates their efforts to excel in academics. Businesses making financial contributions were Magnolia State Bank, Community Bank, Richton bank & Trust, First State Bank and Foil Wyatt Architects.

The students were excited to hear that the first place team would receive $2,500, while the second place team would receive $1,500. Also, Howard Computers donated a mini laptop computer to the student who answered the most questions.

The questions are not your basic math questions. Forget about simple addition and math and focus more on algebra, geometry and calculus.

Competing teams from each high school consisted of four students. However, each team had additional or alternate players.  The math bowl was set up in double-elimination format with questions ranging in difficulty from algebra to calculus. 

“They have 15 seconds to answer each question,” explained Cynthia Bush, one of the time keepers at the event. “Each round lasts eight minutes.”

Wilson reiterated: “These are no one plus two type questions. These are hard questions and you have to know your stuff to answer them.”

He added that he loves sports and football rivalries like everyone else, but he wishes there was as much media hype about academic competitions as it is in sporting events.

“In math, you have a right and wrong answer,” said Wilson. “In football, you score or you don’t score.

“Why can’t we spend as much money on math and science bowls as we do on all of these football competitions? What’s more important?”

Bush added the main objective of the math quiz bowl is to inspire education and academic excellence among the youth. “We want them to see the power of knowledge and how important it is in life.”

Jim Kelly, JCJC’s Vice President of Instructional Affairs, described the math quiz bowl as a “win-win situation because it is getting students excited about math.” He added that participating students have an opportunity to increase their math skills and possibly increase their math scores on the ACT test.

“In our district, students score lowest on the math portion of the ACT test,” he said. “We contacted area principals about letting their students have some time out of class to participate in the math bowl, they were excited to do so.”

Kelly said if students improve their ACT scores it means better rankings and accreditation for the school districts.