Students competed against Oklahoma classrooms in Think Through Math’s “Red River Rumble”

FORT BEND ISD – A statewide math program recently rewarded some Garcia Middle School (GMS) students with a pizza party for helping the state of Texas beat Oklahoma in Think Through Math’s third annual “Red River Rumble.”  During the final weeks of 2014, five teams from each state flexed their math muscles by completing Think Through Math online lessons.  Think Through Math, an online math instruction program, provides rigorous adaptive lessons built upon Texas TEKS, and is available to public school students in grades 3-8 across Texas as part of Texas SUCCESS.

Though the four-week long “Red River Rumble” ended in a tie between both states, Texas was able to rack up thousands of bonus challenge points in the evening and weekend bonus round by logging on to Think Through Math during after-school hours.  Vanessa Huntington’s second period Algebra 1 Pre-AP class at GMS is credited with pushing Texas to the top, with Huntington’s 26 students completing 550 math lessons and logging 145 hours outside of the school day during the month-long contest.

“We love when students continue working on math outside of the school day to further their learning,” said Lisa Wise, Director of Motivation at Think Through Math. “Students at Garcia Middle School helped to give Texas the competitive edge in this contest and ultimately take them to victory.”

Huntington’s students won T-shirts, a pizza party and a poster for their role in Texas’ hard-fought victory.

“Think Through Math provides contests and incentives to motivate students to stay engaged and continue with the program all year long,” said Huntington. “My students have been very engaged and have worked extremely hard on this program.”

This is the third year Texas and Oklahoma have competed in the Red River Rumble, with Texas winning all three years.

Photo: Vanessa Huntington's second period Algebra 1 Pre-AP class.