Hosted by Physics teachers Scott Hovan and Karissa Baker, 9th-grade graph matching found students cheering for their class representatives in a walker-take-all contest in the Huss Center Oct. 25.

The annual competition consisted of one ninth grader from each class. The competitor’s job was to try to match a graph that was displayed to them and the crowd by plotting themselves as the correct starting point on stage, then determining their direction and speed as they walked backward to match the graph on the screen.

Tuesday’s competition was a culminating event; each period held its own graph-matching contest in class, with the winner representing them in the three rounds in Huss. The contest took place during X period, after a brief class meeting; while attendance was optional, most 9th graders stayed to cheer on their classmates.

Freshman Charlie Beckham liked the crowd. “It was nice. It wouldn’t have the same energy without them,” he said.

Beckham represented Per 1 Physics and took second place overall.

The contest was 3 rounds long, with each graph progressively getting harder and harder.
In round one, four of the eight contestants were eliminated, while Maren Overgaard (Per 3), Charlie Beckham (Per 1), James Welsh (Per 4), and, Elizabeth Tuttle (Per 5) moved on.

Round two ended with Overgaard and Beckham moving on once again. With an explosive cheer from her fellow Period 3 classmates, Maren took the win with a score of 0.07699 and Charlie took second place with a score of 0.1996 on a graph that offered challenge with pacing and distance.

The overall reception of the contest was pretty good.

“I think that they should continue doing it, and it the really fun,” Beckham said. “I think it’s a staple of the school.”

Winner Maren Overgaard shared Beckham enjoyment of the contest.“I loved the energy that the physics teachers had going into it and the atmosphere they create.”

The winner has their face printed on a trophy in the Physics room.