KNOXVILLE — Ten students from six high schools took home four-year tuition scholarships from the inaugural Tennessee Math Contest Thursday at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Teams from Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport and Bartlett High School in Bartlett took home trophies in the accompanying Math Bowl competitions.
Five of the 10 scholarships went to math students from Farragut High School in Knox County.
Winners were Ada Graham, Sara Lemme, Eric Mueller, Nathan Tanner and Nathaniel Watson, all from Farragut; Ryan Grubbs, Karns High School; James Hughes, Cleveland High School; Andrew Large, Dobyns-Bennett High School; Daniel Radoff, Bearden High School, and Yuan Tao, Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School in Nashville.
The contest, sponsored by the UT-Knoxville mathematics department, drew some 500 high school students from across the state for a day of testing and other math-related activities, said Dr. John Conway, head of the department.
Conway said the contest drew students from 54 high schools in every region of the state.
“This contest gives students a chance to see others who are really interested in mathematics and interact with them,” Conway said. “They get to see the University of Tennessee and understand that mathematics has a very important role to play in many, many facets of life.
“In the long run I believe we will be attracting more mathematically-talented students to enroll here.”
In addition to the scholarships, the 10 top scorers were invited to join the UT honors program when they enroll.
The students and adult chaperones were responsible for their own travel expenses to Knoxville. Conway said the department hopes to interest corporate sponsors in supporting future contests. He expects attendance to grow to as many as 1,500 students.