FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BISHOP — Santiago Lopez, a Bishop Union High School sophomore, took top honors in the 12th annual Trig-Star competition on Tuesday, May 26. Santiago’s score, 60 points in 46:30, earned him eighth place among 240 students participating statewide and a $250 award.
Rounding out the top three were junior Cody Guse with 56 points in 55:40 and sophomore Brad Rockwell with 56 points in 56:57, winning $100 and $50 respectively.
Forty-two students in Diedre Buchholz’s math class 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 had one hour to complete the test, and when the scores were tallied, the top three students finished with an average score of 57 points. For the first time in over a decade, no students in the state earned a perfect score.
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.
Caltrans District 9 Branch Chief of Land Surveys Kirk Denison, Senior Transportation Surveyor Sereyna Cagle, and Transportation Surveyor Andres Sanchez gave a presentation introducing the land-surveying profession and Trig-Star competition to Buchholz’s math class earlier in the year. Trig-Star is open to all BUHS students.
Funding for the local competition came from the California Transportation Foundation (CTF) and the BUHS Mathletes. The CTF donated $200 for the competition, a figure that was matched by the Mathletes.
For those with sensory disabilities requiring alternate formats (i.e. Braille, large print, sign language interpreter, etc.) and those needing information in a language other than English, please contact Angela Bates at 760-881-7145 or TTY 711.
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