Elementary Math Whizzes Battle During Math 24

On the 24th day of May on the 24th anniversary of Math 24, 100 students from 10 of the 13 elementary schools in North Penn School District competed to see who was the best math whiz.

A.M. Kulp Elementary held a Math 24 Game tournament, which involved the top 10 students from the 10 elementary schools playing the challenging game.

Math 24 is an arthmetical card game where the goal is to manipulate four integers to total 24. You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to get the answer.

Stephanie Schwal, curriculum supervisor for math for the district, said the tournament was a way to celebrate the work the students had done in math classes and see which one is the best 24 Champ of the District.

The top three winners got 24 Game special edition card decks.

The elementary schools have their own 24 Clubs where the students practice all year, Schwal said.

"It's amazing to see how fast some of them are," she said. "They even beat me."

A.M. Kulp teacher Rosa Apple called the game "a difficult spectator sport."

"If you're the first competitor and you come away with a few points, that's part of the learning game and part of the competition," she said. "There's no shame in that."

The district has hosted the event since about 1996, but on a smaller scale. Montgomery Elementary Principal Jeff Macosko, who emceed the event, said the district was the test group for the card game back in 1994. 

Robert Sun commercialised the game and copyrighted it in 1988 and sold it through his company, Suntex International Inc. in Easton, PA.

In 2011, Montgomery Elementary swept all three top spots in the 24 Game.

This year, Montgomery Elementary garnered second place with fourth-grader Eshan Jituri grabbing 102 points.

"At first, I was really nervous. I practiced for this, but I couldn't figure out one card," Jituri said. "The answers just came to me."

Third place went to Joe Steele, a sixth-grader at A.M. Kulp, who gathered 100 points.

"I wanted to do well. Last year, I got 52 points," Steele said. "I never thought I would get into the top three."

Steele said there are some things he likes and doesn't like about math.

"I like long division," he said. "I like how math is one of my easier subjects."

The first place winner went to A.M. Kulp's own Shree Patel, a fifth grader, who totaled 122 points.

"I just like using my brain," said Patel. "It's fun to calculate stuff." 

Patel started getting nervous when she saw Steele still standing near the end of the game.

"I knew he was better than me. I had no idea what would happen," she said.