By Khalida Sarwari
Twenty-five students spent nearly their entire weekend on Sept. 29 and 30 solving math problems at the second annual Mathnasium TriMathlon competition in Campbell.
The contest is held annually in about 200 Mathnasium centers across the country. This year, 25 students signed up to participate in the Campbell event along with more than 3,000 others nationwide.
The contestants were divided into four grade levels, from third to sixth, where they competed in three events that tested their math proficiencies, including The Counting Game, Magic Squares Challenge and Mental Math Workout. The winners received prizes such as an Xbox, video games and goodie bags, said Kobad Bugwadia, founder of the Campbell-Los Gatos Mathnasium.
“They get to compete, they get to see the fun side of math,” he said. “It was a really good community event.”
Two students–fifth-grader Nitin Kumar and third-grader Rowan Nag–received a perfect score and will move on to the national competition the weekend of Oct. 6-7 with a chance to win $10,000 in prizes.
Bugwadia founded Mathnasium, a math tutoring and enrichment center, in 2009 as part of a franchise with more than 300 locations in the country as well as 16 international locations including Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Hong Kong. He also recently opened a center in Mountain View that serves that city as well as the Los Altos community.
Over the last three years, the Campbell Mathnasium has won several accolades, including an award for the Best Center Growth at the 2012 Mathnasium convention in Chicago and a Best of the Bay award from KRON last year. Also in 2011, the Bay Area Parent Magazine voted the center a family favorite.
The center provides one-on-one instruction to kids in grades 1-12 and the program is customized to each student’s potential. Mathnasium now boasts more than 100 registered students from both private and public schools in the Campbell, Saratoga, Los Gatos and San Jose areas, said Bugwadia.
“This is for enrichment; that is an important distinction,” said Bugwadia. “It’s for students who are struggling, but at the same time it’s also for students who want to learn more than what they’re learning in school.”
The focus is on building a strong foundation in mathematical concepts and combining that with what the student is learning in school, Bugwadia said. Each student is given an assessment test based on their grade level, and from there, instructors, who are a mix of math or engineering graduates from nearby universities and community colleges, design a custom learning plan catered to that student’s specific needs.
The center provides students with dictionaries explaining math concepts, artwork on the walls depicting those concepts and tools such as playing cards, dice and a number line, said Bugwadia.
One of the greatest feelings for him, Bugwadia said, is having a balanced boy to girl ratio in the Mathnasium program.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more girls than boys,” he said, “and that’s a great accomplishment. It’s not the stereotype typical formula.”
The cost of the Mathnasium program ranges from $220 to $290 for 10 hours per month.
For more information about the Campbell-Los Gatos Mathnasium, visitwww.mathnasium.com/campbell.
