When it comes to math, Norwood Elementary is a national competitor.

Nine students from the school are heading to the National Math Bee competition in Birmingham, Ala., this week to show off their knowledge of basic mathematics. The kids make up teams from the second, third and fourth grades, with three members each, math team coach Michelle Barkemeyer said.

The nine students are: Felecia Allridge, Brady Barkemeyer, Destanie Butler, Jaidyn Gardner, Nataly Gonzalez, Dillon Grimes, Devyn Rummel, Ethan Shaw and Samantha Sherwood.

Barkemeyer said they have prepared for the competition by working all year with the math software program, “BatterUp,” on which the national competition is based. Questions are asked on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

“Facts flash on the screen, and depending on your answer you get a single, double or home run,” Barkemeyer said. “It starts as a classroom competition, then to grade level and then to district level, which here in Norwood pretty much is the same thing.”

Getting to the national level shows how hard the kids have worked, she said.

The National Math Bee is only a few years old, Barkemeyer said, and when she heard about it two years ago, she helped put it into the math program.

Last year, Barkemeyer took 18 students to Birmingham, she said. Community-wide fundraising paid for last year’s trip and left enough to cover most expenses this year, she said.

Although students have been preparing for the competition by working with the software, final preparations fall to the individual students, she said.

“We start with one week at the beginning of the school year, and now the kids have two hours a week plus computer lab,” she said.

Only 11 schools in the country are headed to the national competition. Five of the schools competing are in Alabama, with one team each from schools in Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas.

Barkemeyer said she hopes more Colorado schools incorporate the National Math Bee software and compete.

“It’s such an inexpensive program, and it would be great to see more schools around Colorado do this,” she said.

Math skills are only part of the learning process, Barkemeyer said, and the kids get to experience another part of the country. Most of the kids have never been on a plane. They also will to go to a zoo and an amusement park, she said.

“A lot of these kids have never been on a roller coaster before,” she said.

•

E-mail Beverly Corbell at bcorbell@gjds.com.