BASIS Independent McLean Earns First Place at 34th Annual Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS Competition

For the first time in almost 30 years, the 34th Annual Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS Competition awarded first place to a new math champion: BASIS Independent McLean (BIM) of McLean, Va., which opened in 2016. BIM’s middle school math team placed first among schools in the Northern Virginia Chapter MATHCOUNTS Competition (comprised of 17 schools). Longfellow Middle School of Falls Church, Va., who has historically earned the first place award since the 1980s, came in second place. For more information on BASIS Independent McLean, go to http://mclean.basisindependent.com.

“We’re so proud of our students; they made MATHCOUNTS their competition, their project, their win,” said Sean Aiken, head of school of BASIS Independent McLean of McLean, Va. “Our school is designed to help kids take ownership of their own successes and failures, as each lends itself to great learning opportunities; we’re honored to have our students represent BASIS Independent McLean and very impressed that as a new school, they won by working together as a team,” said Aiken.

The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS competition is held at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. The regional competition combines the Fairfax, George Washington and Northern VA Chapters of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers. The top team and top students from each chapter will compete at the Virginia State MATHCOUNTS competition on March 18, 2017 in Richmond, Va. Sixth through eighth grade students from 53 Virginia elementary and middle schools competed at the events. These students have been practicing since the fall and were selected to represent their schools at the competitions. Students compete as school teams and as individuals.

Sponsors of The Northern Virginia Regional MATHCOUNTS program include: Northrop Grumman Information Systems, Comcast NBCUniversal, The Association for Manufacturing Technology, George Mason University, MITRE, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts of Alexandria, Va. and individual engineer contributors. National sponsors of MATHCOUNTS include: Raytheon Company, Northrop Grumman Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, National Society of Professional Engineers, CNA Foundation, Phillips 66, Texas Instruments Incorporated, 3Mgives, Art of Problem Solving and NextThought.

About MATHCOUNTS: MATHCOUNTS was founded in 1983 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and CNA Foundation. MATHCOUNTS is a national middle school math enrichment program offering competition and club activities designed to foster appreciation of math among U.S. students so as to prepare students for future career opportunities and success. More than 6 million students across the U.S. have participated in MATHCOUNTS programs. For more information, go to www.mathcounts.org.