Lehigh Valley MATHCOUNTS®

Lower Macungie Middle School and Eyer Middle School are among the 28 middle, intermediate and junior high schools from four counties sending 175 students to compete in the 33rd annual Lehigh Valley MATHCOUNTS® Feb. 11. The event will be held at Southern Lehigh High School, 5800 Main St., Center Valley. The snow date is Feb. 12.

Students will take written tests 9:15 to 11:45 a.m. in the gymnasium. The top 10 scoring students will face off in the Countdown Round, a “Jeopardy” style oral competition, 1 p.m. in the school auditorium.

Organized by the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the PA Society of Professional Engineers for students in Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, and Monroe counties, the event is one of about 20 Pennsylvania competitions. Regional winners advance to the state competition March 10 and 11 held in Harrisburg.

Students and coaches devote many after school hours to prepare for what some have called the “Olympics of Math.” The 2017 National MATHCOUNTS® Competition will take place in Orlando, Fla. May 14 to 15 with Raytheon Corporation as the title sponsor. Nationwide approximately 40,000 students, representing more than 5,500 schools will participate in the 2017 MATHCOUNTS® Competition.

Other Lehigh County schools participating in the event are: Harrison Morton Middle School; Joseph P. Liberati Intermediate School; Orefield Middle School; Saint Michael the Archangel School; Saint Thomas More School; Southern Lehigh Middle School; Springhouse Middle School; Saint Ann School; Saint Joseph the Worker School; Saint Theresa School; The Swain School and Trexler Middle School.

Schools from Northampton County are: East Hills Middle School; Easton Area Middle School 7/8; Moravian Academy; MZhang Homeschool; Nitschmann Middle School; Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Saucon Valley Middle School.

Monroe County schools are Clear Run Intermediate School; Pleasant Valley Middle School; Pocono Mountain East Junior High School; Pocono Mountain West Junior High School; Swiftwater Intermediate School and Tobyhanna Elementary Center.

Palmerton Area Junior High School from Carbon County is also participating.

Prizes at the Lehigh Valley competition include scholarships for math and/or science courses at Cedar Crest College, Moravian College, Lafayette College, Lehigh Carbon Community College and Northampton County Community College.

MATHCOUNTS®, a program of the National Society of Professional Engineers, is a math enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement in every U.S. state and territory to provide students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers.