From left are Gifted STEM teacher Heather Frost-Hauck, fifth graders Samuel Frondorf, Garret Harrison, Lily Williford, Cooper Reinert, Sydney Gee, Trey Hollins, Cordelia Brumley, and Gifted STEM teacher Fay Wagner.

From left are Gifted STEM teacher Heather Frost-Hauck, fifth graders Samuel Frondorf, Garret Harrison, Lily Williford, Cooper Reinert, Sydney Gee, Trey Hollins, Cordelia Brumley, and Gifted STEM teacher Fay Wagner.
From left are Autumn Gregory, Gifted STEM teacher Heather Frost-Hauck, Elijah Ryan, Montana Reynolds, Lily Wood, Karis Jurgens, Kirstyn Thomas, Luke Frondorf, Henry Gee, Gifted STEM teacher Fay Wagner, and Ivy Zinser.
From left are Gifted STEM teacher Heather Frost-Hauck, third graders Aiden Harrison, Nicholas Moorehead, Hayden Hollins, Jason Crouch, and Gifted STEM teacher Fay Wagner.
By Art Hunter
Editor

The Clermont County Gifted STEM Program has been serving students in the Bethel-Tate and Williamsburg school districts for three years. The collaborative effort between the two districts serves students identified as gifted in grades three through eight.

Sixty of the program’s 125 students recently took part in the Noetic Learning Mathematics Contest. The contest is a national elementary math problem solving competition. Held twice a year, the competition is designed to encourage interest in math and help develop problem solving skills.

Faye Wagner, a Clermont County Gifted STEM teacher, said that the test is only given to the nation’s top math students, and the Clermont County students fared well against very strong competition.

“We had a lot of students score in the top half of all the students who took the test,” Wagner said. “This is something to celebrate and be really proud of.”

Wagner noted that not only did more than half of the program’s students score in the top 50 percent of all those taking the test, but six of the program’s students scored in the top 10 percent in the nation.

Fifth-grader Samuel Frondorf distinguished himself by achieving the top score in the state of Ohio.

The competition consists of 20 problems, covering a wide range or math skills, from computation to algebra, geometry and statistics, which students have 45 minutes to solve.

The students were recognized Tuesday, Dec. 11 at the monthly meeting of PALS, the Parents for Advanced Learners, a support group made up of parents and educators of students in the Gifted STEM Program.