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3 Citrus students ace math portion
By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE © St. Petersburg Times, published October 16, 2000 About 150,000 10th-grade students, 170,000 eighth-grade students and 185,000 fifth-grade students took the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, this year. In math, 245 high school students received perfect scores. One of them was Crystal River High School student Christine Hart. In fifth grade, 210 students aced the math portion. Included in the list are Citrus County middle-schoolers Michael Mavros and Jeffrey Gonzalez. Christine, 16, took the test at Crystal River High, where she now is a junior. Michael, 11, took the test at Lecanto Primary School. He now attends Lecanto Middle. He said the test was "pretty easy." Jeffrey, also 11, took the test while at Pleasant Grove Elementary. He is now at Inverness Middle. He, too, said it was easy. But how easy was it? Here is a sample question from the fifth-grade test: "The gymnastics class stood in rows to have their team picture taken. The photographer told two people to stand in the first row, four people to stand in the second row and six people to stand in the third row. The photographer continued the pattern. How many people did he tell to stand in the sixth row?" (Answer: Row 1 has two people, Row 2 has four people, Row 3 has six people, Row 4 has eight people, Row 5 has 10 people and Row 6 has 12 people.) Michael, not surprisingly, said, "My favorite subject is probably math. I think I could do it before I got to school. I like algebra a lot." He studies advanced math now and probably will move into pre-algebra in seventh grade. "My math teacher last year, Mrs. Stewart, she was really nice and she helped me a lot," Michael said. Jeffrey said he prefers language arts and science to math. "I don't particularly love it to death," he said. "I just happen to be good at it." Jeffrey has performed well in all his subjects so far. "I haven't gotten a B on a report card yet," he said. Jeffrey is also in advanced math now, probably to be followed by pre-algebra. Here are some examples from the test for tenth grade: "Which of these numbers is the greatest? A) The square root of 119. B) 119 divided by 11. C) 0.11 x (10 squared). D) 11 percent of 119." (Answer: A= 10.908712; B= 10.818181; C= 11.00; D= 13.09. So D is the greatest number.) "A sphere has a surface area of 1,256 square meters. What is the radius of the sphere? A= 10 meters B= 20 meters C= 100 meters D= 200 meters" (Answer: 10 meters.) Christine said she prefers business classes to math. "I like algebra better than geometry, I think. I don't like word problems, but computation I like," she said. Christine last year participated in Math Field Day, a countywide math competition. Her Crystal River team claimed second place in geometry. Christine already has taken Algebra I, geometry and Algebra II. She is now in pre-calculus, a dual-enrollment class, which means she will receive high school and college credit. She is taking humanities, which also is a dual-enrollment class, digital publishing and physics. Michael and Christine said they are undecided about their college majors and future careers. Jeffrey intends to be a veterinarian who specializes in marine mammals. Michael is an only child and lives with his parents, Renee and George Mavros. His mother is the exceptional student specialist at Lecanto Middle School, and his father is the lab director at Citrus Memorial Hospital. Michael likes to watch TV, play video games and hang out with his friends Ross Reiland and Philip Saltsman. "They're both good in math," Michael said. Jeffrey lives with his mother, Janet Gonzalez, a clinical nurse specialist, and his brother, James, 14, a freshman at Citrus High School. Jeffrey takes piano lessons, plays soccer, likes to swim and hangs out with his buddies, Bryan Tobin and Alex Peri. Christine lives with her parents, Richard and Diane Hart, and three siblings, Heather, 11, a sixth-grader at Seven Rivers Christian School; Ricky, 6, a first-grader at Homosassa Elementary School; and Joshua, 4, who attends Son-Shine Playschool. Her mother is a fifth-grade teacher at Homosassa Elementary, and her father is pastor at First Assembly of God in Crystal River. Christine takes piano lessons. She is in the youth group at the church, and she watches the children in the nursery. Plus, she said, "I like to read."
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