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Numbers mount for first-grade math whizzes

Riverview students on track to beat a national record

First graders in Matt Ogburn’s class at Riverview Elementary School hope to set a record for solving math problems in one academic year.

They’ve collectively solved 148,000 problems posed by IXL, an online curriculum developer, Ogburn said Friday. They’d like to reach 150,000 answers before the academic year ends Wednesday, he said.

Ogburn said he has contacted IXL about how his students stack up against counterparts across the country. An IXL representative promised to look into it but that it would involve juggling some data, he said.

IXL tries to make math fun through games and other alternative approaches.

Work is done online and involves such topics as bar graphs, story problems, counting coins, telling time and plain old addition and subtraction.

Correct answers are recorded electronically, Ogburn said. Some of his students are so into the activity that they work from home, he said. Answers from home count toward the total score because each student’s presence is recorded.

Ogburn said some of his first-graders are able to handle fractions.

daler@durangoherald.com



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