Southwest Junior High School student Doh Yun Kim gives his teammates high fives Tuesday at the Lawrence Junior High Math Contest at district headquarters, 110 McDonald Drive.

Calculators and scratch paper were the weapons of choice for junior high school students at the math competition. Southwest Junior High School students won both grade divisions and will represent Lawrence in the Kansas City Area Teachers of Mathematics Math Day Competition in March.

Students from Lawrence junior high schools got the opportunity to flex a little brain muscle Tuesday.

Nearly 50 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders competed in the second Lawrence Junior High Math Contest, adding and subtracting their way through a series of difficult math questions.

“There’s about 15 questions. Each question is timed and worth a corresponding amount of points,” said competition moderator Pamela Simpson.

Simpson, the facilitator of gifted education at West Junior High School, said events such as these “get the four junior high schools together and let the kids see other bright kids from other schools.”

Before each question, Simpson would yell “rip and flip,” signaling the start of the timer.

Huddled around calculators and messy pieces of scratch paper, students tried to beat the clock before submitting their answers to the judges.

Students tackled algebra, geometry, problem solving and probability problems for a chance to be recognized by their teachers and peers. Winners took home individual medals and a plaque for their school, but the number crunching won’t stop there.

Southwest Junior High School, winners of both grade divisions – seventh- and eighth-graders in one and ninth-graders in the other – now will represent Lawrence in the Kansas City Area Teachers of Mathematics Math Day Competition in March.

“I did it because, generally, I love math,” said Jake Mather, a ninth-grader from Southwest.

He said he was excited about the chance to compete in a subject he loves.

“My sister and my parents can definitely say that I’ve always been a math geek,” he said.

Mather and his teammates finished first in the ninth-grade division, defeating their rivals from West.

“It feels pretty good,” said the 15-year-old Mather.

And while competition may not have been as exciting as, say, a basketball or football game, Simpson said, “I just like that they have a chance to compete in something that’s not on the playing field.”