When the University of Rhode Island mathematics department held its first Calc-Bowl in 2007, two high school teams competed against 12 college teams.
The recently concluded 10th Calc-Bowl saw 75 students on 16 teams from Rhode Island high schools competing to answer pre-calculus and calculus questions. And there was so much interest from local high schools, that for the first time there was no room for any college teams, according to organizer and URI mathematics professor Li Wu. Only more sponsorship would allow the program to include more teams and bring back undergraduate participants.
For the second year in a row, a team of Barrington High School teens – known as Integr8 – took home first prize.
The second-place team from The Wheeler School is called Team Extrema. And the third-place winners were Coventry High School’s Dream Team and Naval Academy Prep School’s I 8 Sigma Pie.
To the right are five of the 40 problems that the teams faced in the final round, with the answers provided below (and upside down, so no cheating!). •
