A problem has presented itself to some of Harding’s upperclassmen, a math problem that is, as a group of  Harding’s juniors and seniors have decided to take on Moody’s Mega Math Challenge on Saturday March 8th for the chance to win up to $125,000 in scholarships for themselves and their school.

The M3 challenge is a competition which pits over 1400 teams of students from schools across forty-five states and D.C., against each other to see which group best applies math to solve a real world problem over the course of fourteen hours. Their solutions will be presented through proposal papers which they will write based on their own conclusions and information they have gathered from available sources. Seeking help from anyone outside the group is strictly forbidden.

This is the first time that a group of students from Harding have participated in the competition. The team consists of Kalin Kyte, Jake Burga , Hunt Swish, Geoffrey Barbor and William James, and the team’s sponsor is the school’s AP Calculus teacher, Mr. Wilford.

Kyte discovered this program through Fastweb one day in capstone. “I saw an academic competition in math, and I thought I could do pretty well,” she said

Being the first to do something isn’t easy though, as the team has had to learn the hard way how to work together and stay organized. A mixture of  schedule conflicts and waning interests led to the disbanding of a second team that was also supposed to compete. Despite these difficulties, the remaining members have managed to learn from their mistakes as well as their schedules.

“We’ve covered a lot of ground in terms of teamwork. We haven’t done a lot of question work. Our schedules have been wacky, but we’ve learned how to get everyone in the same room. It’s been a tough battle, but I think we’ve won,” Barbour said.

Luckily for the team they will be competing in a comfortable environment, which will help the team maintain their demeanor as they spend over half a day concentrating on solving their question.

“The challenge requires us to be isolated from human contact for fourteen hours. The main reason we’ll be there is that we wanted a better environment to work in than just the school. My dad suggested his office, and everyone agreed. We’ll have access to better bathrooms, a kitchen and a conference room,” Burga said.

Despite organizational issues and other setbacks, the students competing feel confident they will be able to match the quality of work that the competition expects of them, though none of them believe that their team will actually place.

“It’d be great to win, but I think my biggest goal isn’t winning myself, but getting Harding involved. There’s a chance to win money for the school, and it feels like something we should do,”  Kyte said.