She was invited back to compete against high school students Tuesday in Bangor.
“We are all really proud of Jordyn,” said Jenn Gillman, math teacher at East Grand School. “Jordyn was promoted a grade ahead and is in the eighth grade. Jordyn is a starter on the varsity girls basketball team as a 12-year-old.”
“In math, I like the ability to expand on my own time by myself,” Cowger said. “It’s not difficult to learn without a teacher or someone there to help me. I have resources I can use to answer any questions. That makes it fun to expand and learn things that I normally wouldn’t be able to learn if I had to go to a teacher or someone else if I needed help or had a question. Math is my favorite subject though I do enjoy other classes.”
For more than 60 years, students across the country have taken up the challenge of America’s longest-running and most prestigious math contests, The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC). Every year, at thousands of schools in every state, more than 350,000 students are presented with a set of questions rich in content, designed to make them think and sure to leave them talking.
“The competition was difficult,” she said. “It’s not the same type of questions that you normally get out of a math textbook. It’s a lot of critical thinking and logic along with just math topics.”
Dedicated to strengthening the mathematical capabilities of our nation’s youth, the AMC program identifies, recognizes, and rewards excellence in mathematics through a series of national contests. Cowger participated in the AMC8 and will participate in the AMC9/10 in February.
She participated with around 50 students from schools primarily in the Bangor area. The top students from those schools were invited to participate in the competition. Cowger received the highest score of the students that competed in Bangor.
She has been invited to participate in the next level and also an enrichment program through the Hampden school for Math and Junior Engineering.
“I am excited,” Cowger said. “I think it’s going to be less stressful then it was the first time because there are much less expectations. For the first one, it was a lot more nerve racking not knowing what you were going into. Now I know. It seems that everyone is fairly content and happy with whatever I’ve already achieved. They won’t be super disappointed if I don’t do very well on this one.”
“Just recently, Jordyn improved her NWEA test score in math to achieve an almost record-breaking score,” Gilman said. “The record was created by a junior in high school. Through her participation in the Gifted and Talented program, Jordyn took the PSAT’s. Her scores were well above benchmark. She’s an awesome young lady who always has a positive attitude and loves to learn. She’s an inspiration to her peers and a source of pride for our school.”
