For the first time this year, Vashon is sending three teams of “mathletes” to the state “Math is Cool” competition — an intense, fast-paced tournament against teams from other schools.

The fourth, fifth and sixth grades won big at regionals, nabbing first and second places and earning spots at the May 17 masters competition. Now, the Chautauqua and McMurray students will have a chance to prove they are the best mathletes around. The road to success is based on team members’ cooperation with each other, teachers said.

Four students from each grade will make the trek across the state to Spokane. They were selected from a pool of 18 from each grade who went to the Seattle competition, and even that selection process was highly competitive.

Forty students tried out for the fifth-grade team, and the sixth-grade team had to be whittled down from 30, teachers said.

Math is Cool competitions involve individual problems, “college bowls” — where teams compete against each other and have to buzz in an answer first — and team problems, including relay-style questions where each person’s answer is based on the last team member’s answer.

So why are students so eager to be a part of Math is Cool?

“They just get so excited,” said fourth-grade teacher Mary Heath, who is traveling to Spokane to coach her team. “I think the format is really fun. A lot of it is sharing ideas and different ways to solve problems. The students like working together on problems and working on a team.”

She said Math is Cool competitors are cooperative and focused, which contributed to their success at regionals.

Math is Cool is a statewide competition started in the late 1990s by a mathematics teacher at a high school in Spokane. Each year, interest in the program has grown statewide and locally. Last year was the first year Vashon has sent a team to state, even though Island schools have qualified since first competing five years ago.

Last spring, one fourth-grade student insisted that, since his team qualified to go to state, he should be able to go. He convinced his parents and three other families, and a Vashon team headed to Spokane.

This year, it was a given — many more than four students from each grade were intent on participating in the state competition.

Chautauqua Principal Kate Baehr said the consistent success of Island Math is Cool teams may have several causes.

First, a Partners in Education grant this year supported a problem solver math supplement. Also, Chautauqua hosted a family math night that drew hundreds of people.

“We had 20 or more different stations, from edible math to games and explaining some of the Everyday Math curriculum,” Baehr said.

She also said she believed the students, parents and teachers on Vashon deserve recognition.

“I think (the students) are hardworking; I think they’re enthusiastic about learning. Their teachers are supportive, their parents are supportive and that’s a successful equation for great math outcomes,” Baehr said. “I think math is a really exciting content area, and it is challenging for most students — it doesn’t come naturally, so when they see positive outcomes, it’s exciting.”

Heath and fifth-grade teachers Kay Burrell and Ken Larsen, coaches for Math is Cool, agreed that the Everyday Math curriculum that Chautauqua adopted several years ago is helpful in preparing students for Math is Cool.

“It’s a curriculum that really focuses on numbers sense, focuses on a number of different algorithms and kids pick the ones that work for them,” Larsen said. “In fifth grade, I give kids a number of different problem-solving strategies.”

Burrell, the “behind-the-scenes” coach, selects specific worksheets to prepare students for Math is Cool competitions and makes sure the teams are signed up for competitions.

She said the students have been successful because they are “very smart” and because they work hard.

“We were just thrilled as buttons,” she said of the fifth-graders’ win at regionals. “We really do want them to enjoy the experience and have a good time. For the first time this year, both fourth and fifth got first.”

Jim Gilmour, McMurray’s sixth-grade math teacher, said the only team that beat his was Bear Creek Elementary, a school made up of “children of Microsoft employees.”

He said his students prepared all year for Math is Cool, and there was very high interest in the competition.

He said the students who are going to Spokane “perform well under pressure” and are “the leaders in their math class in terms of their willingness to help others.”

Gilmour added that he hoped Math is Cool competitions could springboard his students into a lifelong love of math and even a career in math, engineering or science.

“It’s not just for nerds. We want to encourage those kids who have talents in math to go into engineering and sciences because there’s not many going into those fields right now,” he said. “I look at these kids and I have a lot of respect for them. I am in awe of their talent and I have a lot of respect for them.”

Sixth-grade math coach Gordon Millar leads the McMurray math club after school for all grades at the school. The state Math is Cool competition comes earlier in the year, so this year the seventh and eighth-graders did not go to Spokane. But the sixth-graders told Millar next year, they’re going, and he agreed.

“If you want to do it, we’ll do it,” he said. “They’re a fabulous bunch of kids to work with, it was a great joy to be able to do this, to be entrusted with this. I’m 72 and this keeps me young and healthy.”

He said Gilmour and the students’ parents are supportive and certainly a factor in the mathletes’ success.

“These kids seem to have a thirst for math and a thirst for success,” he said. “It’s a lot of pressure, but they handle it well.”

Sixth-grader Lauren Houston said she is excited, but also “kind of nervous” about going to state.

“It gives you a challenge, but you have your teammates with you and you know if you mess up a little bit you have them to help you,” she said.

The most difficult problems are those with algebra, she said, which she is still learning.

She said she believes her team has a pretty good chance of winning in Spokane, despite being up against teams from across the state.

Her father Dan Houston said he was “just amazed and delighted” at her success in Math is Cool.

“Lauren is more competitive than we are,” he said. “It wasn’t around when I was in school 30 years ago. The opportunities for competitions and learning seem to be better than then.

“I’m also aware that there’s a larger issue for declining math scores so this seems to be a little oasis in that desert and I’m glad for that.,” he added.

Parent Mark Ripley said Math is Cool allowed both his daughters to discover they were very talented at math.

“It was a positive for them — it opened up math as something that was pretty fun for them,” he said.

Daughter Tera Jane, in sixth grade, was selected to be captain of the Math Olympiad team rather than go to the masters Math is Cool competition.

The Math Olympiad competition took place May 3. All three McMurray grades took home ribbons or medals.

“I’m good at math and I like to do the problems and I like to be working with my friends and together as a team. I think it’s really amazingly fun,” she said.

Younger sister Anna, in fifth grade, is going to Spokane. She said regionals was “exciting and kind of scary,” but looks forward to state anyway.