Santa Ana Students Compete in an International Math Contest

Everything has been adding up for a group of talented young students from Santa Ana. CBS LA's Cara Finstrom reports on the big competition they're in this week. At a time when many Americans are getting Olympic fever, we're keeping tabs on another team that's representing the U.S. This week, nine math wizards from Santa Ana flew to Germany to compete. It's cool, like representing my own country and my own school. We're going to go against like 47 different countries. Rosalyn Rodriguez and her sixth grade teammates have been preparing for the German Math Olympiad for months. When we visited them at Magnolia Science Academy, they were racing to solve intimidating math equations on giant whiteboards. Rosalyn's going in. I like how it makes you really think about each question. It makes you think about like all the different ways you get to solve it. The school's principal says about 400 U.S. students competed to take part in the Olympiad finals. Three of their high school and six of their middle school students made the cut. We are the only one school going to Germany from United States, so we are very proud of our students. Ishan has his answer and it is correct. My sister's one grade higher than me. She would like sometimes teach me like what she learned. Most of the 11 and 12 year olds told us they caught the math bug when they were really young at home. Thank you, mom and dad. All right, guys, we're going to do a really fun math game to practice for our competition. Their coach, Holly Alexander, has been equipping them with tools to tackle increasingly complex problems. Her posted lessons have earned her hipster status in the math realm, working to excite the next generation. My favorite part about being a teacher is to see them get so engaged with math and to compete with one another. And her math lovers are competitive. They sent us snapshots from Germany of the week's opening rounds. Fierce competition is ahead. I feel nervous, but reassured because I'm going to be sitting next to people I know. Roslyn just getting there meant taking her first ever plane trip. The public charter school's mission is to educate and enrich underserved communities. I'm excited to like try out new food, see different cultures. These students want to bring home the gold for the school families who fundraise to send them. Everyone's rooting for Team USA. But it would be tough to make Magnolia Science Academy any prouder.