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Fred Wild students participate in online math competition

Jasmina Meyer, Highlands Today

Fifth grader Anet Morales solves math equations on the computer as she competes with her fellow classmates and students from around the world recently at Fred Wild Elementary School in Sebring.

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: November 1, 2009

SEBRING - It's Fred Wild Elementary students against the world in a competition of mathematical computations where speed and accuracy are of the essence.

"Here I go on my division," advanced academics third-grader Mikeeven Rhoden declares.

The Vmathlive Online competition pits him against two other U.S. students and a student from Canada.

As Rhoden enters his answers, he views his progress with a bar graph, which also shows his competitors' position.

After completing about 28 problems, he's declared the winner of the online competition.

"It's pretty cool; it makes me learn about division and multiplication," Rhoden said. "I think it's really good for me.

"Sometimes I struggle, but I think I can do it. I think Vmath ... is really cool, fun and educational."

The school had Vmathlive temporarily in James Frederico's fifth-grade class and the students loved it, Fred Wild Elementary Principal Laura Waldon said Friday.

Since math is one of the areas in need of improvement, Waldon said she decided to purchase a school-wide license of the program so every student could participate.

It's been up and running just recently, she said, and students can access it from home 24 hours a day.

Most of the students in the third-grade advanced academics class on Friday were pitted against two or three other students from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

Director of Elementary Programs Joyce McClelland said it's very motivational for students and they make a lot of gains with it.

Advanced academics third-grader Dakota Hons said "it's actually pretty fun and every time you win you can actually go and buy different things."

As students earn points with the program they can use the points to add graphic elements to their virtual image (avatar) and virtual background.

Hons selected an animated football game to appear on the flat screen television in his virtual scene.

Teachers track student progress through instant access to online reports.

Waldon said she will be able to view reports to see who is using it and how well they are doing.

Vmathlive is from Voyager Expanded Learning a curriculum provider based in Dallas, Texas.

Friday afternoon vmathlive.com stated that 2,542 "math maniacs" were Online. The program touted a total of 6.28 billion correct answers and improvement of 132.2 percent.

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 863-386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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