Junior wins second trig competition
Students in Diedre Buchholz’s Bishop Union High School math class participated in the annual Trig-Star competition on April 23, testing their knowledge of the practical application of trigonometry, which is instrumental to the field of professional land surveying.
With one hour to complete the test five students finished with a top score of 78. Due to the five-way tie, which student completed the exam first would determine who would come out on top.
As a result, junior Alyssa Buchholz was declared the competition’s winner for the second year in a row, completing the test in 40 minutes and 14 seconds, and securing a $150 cash prize.
Sophomore Bryce Cokeley placed second with a time 57 minutes and six seconds, claiming a $90 prize, and junior
Claire Vetter placed third in 58 minutes and 29 seconds, claiming a $50 prize.
Junior Alex Levi Eide took fourth with a time of 59 minutes and 42 seconds for the $35 prize, and junior Gabrielle Veenker completed the test in exactly one hour, taking fifth place for the $25 prize.
The Trig-Star competition tests the students’ abilities to apply math to real-world situations and heightens the awareness of land surveying as a profession.
Land surveying is the art and science of locating or determining — by measurement — the shape or size of any portion of the earth’s surface and representing the surveys on maps.
The competition is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors, the California
Land Surveyors Association, and Caltrans.
In March, the agency’s District 9 Senior Transportation Surveyor Sereyna Cagle presented Buchholz’s class with information about land surveying and the competition.
The California Transportation Foundation donated $175 for the competition, a figure that was matched by the BUHS Mathletes.