BISHOP — On Tuesday, April 23, a collection of students from Bishop Union High School (BUHS) took part in the annual Trig-Star competition. They were tested on their knowledge of the practical application of trigonometry, a branch of mathematics that is instrumental to the field of professional land surveying. The students of Deidre Buchholz’s math class had one hour to complete the test, and when the scores were tallied, five students finished with a top score of 78.
With a five-way tie, it came down to which student completed the test the quickest. And for the second year in a row, Alyssa Buchholz, junior, was declared the winner. Buchholz, daughter of math teacher Deidre Buchholz, completed the test in 40 minutes and 14 seconds, securing the first-place win and a cash prize of $150.
The rest of the top-five finished as follows:
- Bryce Cokeley, sophomore, 57 minutes and six seconds, $90 prize
- Claire Vetter, junior, 58 minutes and 29 seconds, $50 prize
- Alex Levi Eide, junior, 59 minutes and 42 seconds, $35 prize
- Gabrielle Veenker, junior, one hour, $25 prize
Image 1: The top winners of the BUHS Trig-Star competition. Pictured (from left to right): Caltrans District 9 Senior Transportation Surveyor Sereyna Cagle, math teacher Deidre Buchholz, Claire Vetter, Alyssa Buchholz, Alex Levi Eide (holding the certificate for Gabrielle Veenker who is not pictured), and Bryce Cokeley.
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 these surveys on maps. The Trig-Star competition is sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors, the California Land Surveyors Association, and Caltrans.
In March of this year, Caltrans District 9 Senior Transportation Surveyor Sereyna Cagle gave a presentation introducing the land-surveying profession and Trig-Star competition to a BUHS math class led by Deidre Buchholz.
Funding for the local competition came from the California Transportation Foundation (CTF) and the BUHS Mathletes. The CTF donated $175 for the competition, a figure that was matched by the Mathletes.