On Thursday, April 30, eager math enthusiasts gathered in room 268 after school for the third annual Integration Bee. The event, organized by the ’Stoga Calc Crew and Girls in STEM clubs, composed of 26 participants and over 20 spectators. 

The competition consisted of three rounds. For the first round, participants completed a six-question paper test in 10 minutes. The top 15 scorers, determined by accuracy and speed, moved on to the second round and completed a more challenging 10-minute paper test. The top five scorers from the second round advanced to a fast-paced buzzer round.

“The people here, they’re all really smart and competitive and they love calculus as much as I do. So it really pushes me to want to do these integration bees and get better at integration,” sophomore and participant Dheeraj Garg said.

After roughly 30 minutes of buzzer competition and a tiebreaker round, Garg placed first, junior Rohit Matam placed second and junior Ari Shpilman placed third, winning $20, $15 and $10 gift cards respectively. 

“I’m really happy about (placing first),” Garg said. “The tiebreaker took a little long with four problems, but it was fun.”

Along with having fun solving integration problems, participants also enjoyed a variety of snacks, including chips and donuts, as well as a mini dance break in between the two paper rounds. 

“The (Integration Bee) helps because I think healthy competition is really motivating for a lot of people to come, especially with the free food,” Shpilman said. “Lots of people are here. They’re getting interested in math and all that.”

Grace Lu can be reached at [email protected].

Viktor Wang can be reached at [email protected].

Raymond Wu can be reached at [email protected].