farragutpress

National trips earned by FMS math, science teams

April 16, 2025 by Tammy Cheek

Two Farragut Middle School teams are going to separate national competitions in Washington, D.C., to display their knowledge of math and science this spring.

“Both of our teams won first place at the state level, and we’ll be taking separate trips to the national competitions,” said Kathy Browning, coach for the Science Bowl team.

Representing Tennessee in those competitions are James Ha, Jayden Han, Jiashen Jiang, Elaina Wu and Arya Khule, who make up the Science Bowl team, and the MATHCOUNTS foursome of Elaina (on both teams), Ethan Du, Jalshen (on both teams) and Andy Gu.

“We’re really excited to go to nationals,” Arya said. “We’ve worked hard.”

“We’re studying every week, studying at home at after school,” James said. “We’re really trying to get at least top 10 or top 20.

“Overall, we’re just really excited.”

Browning said the Science Bowl team will be headed to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on an all-expense-paid trip Thursday through Monday, April 24-28 Then, the MATHCOUNTS team will compete Monday through Thursday, May 5-13, in the Weston Washington D.C. Downtown hotel.

At nationals, the Science Bowl team competes against 47 other teams while the MATHCOUNTS team competes against 224 mathematicians from across the country.

“If we finish in the top 16, we will win $1,000 for our school,” said Browning, a seventh-grade teacher. “If we finish in the top eight, we get $2,500 for our school, and if we finish in the top six, we get $5,000. The top team gets $10,000.

In MATHCOUNTS, the nine top-achieving national competitors will receive college scholarships totaling $44,000 across all recipients, according to a MATHCOUNTS competition fact sheet.

“The national champion (Countdown Round winner) will win the $20,000 Donald G. Weinert Scholarship,” the fact sheet further stated. “The Countdown Round runner-up will receive $7,500.

“The two Countdown Round semifinalists will each receive $3,000,” the sheet also stated. “The Written Competition champion will receive $2,500; and the four members of the first-place team will each receive $2,000.”

“I am so proud of this team,” Browning said. “I’ve worked the Science Bowl kids really hard this year. Two days a week (after school), we’ve had practice, so one (week), they’ve had to research and learn on their own.

“Then, on the second day, they practice actually clicking buzzers,” she added. “The third day, most of them have stayed for MATHCOUNTS.”

“They have been coming every week, twice a week, since September, practicing writing Science Bowl questions and trying to prepare.”

“This is a very exciting time for the kids and as a coach,” said MATHCOUNTS coach Emma Rester, a seventh-grade teacher.

She also had one sixth-grade team member who qualified as an individual for nationals — in a separate category — Brian Liu, after he competed at the state level.

“This is my first year coaching the MATHCOUNTS team,” Rester said. “Everyone’s been congratulating me, as a coach, but I just have to tell them,

‘I’ve not done anything to help them,” she added. “I’ve not done anything other than show up and host practices

“This has all been the kids. It’s all been their hard work. They study outside of our practice times. Our kids have put in the hard work to get them there.”

To get Science Bowl team ready for nationals, “we are still studying and we’re trying to get some of the higher-level physics, chemistry and biology — it’s still middle school but higher-level,” Browning said.

For the MATHCOUNTS team, “They’re working on fluency skills to be able to answer the math questions quickly and just working with the other members of the team, who out of Memphis,” Rester said.