An 18-year-old graduate of Cape Coral High School placed fourth place in Calculus out of students across the country in Mu Alpha Theta’s national convention.
Kyle Ramey, a 2009 high school graduate, and math coach Charlie Pease attended the national convention in Knoxville, Tenn., on July 19. Approximately 700 students from across the world competed at the national convention, said Pease, from schools in Ohio, Washington, Hawaii and South Korea.
“There were about 700 of the best from around the nation,” said Pease.
Students at the competition took individual tests and worked as a team. They took up to three individual topic tests and one individual test in their division — Algebra II, Geometry, Pre-Calculus and Calculus.
Ramey, who competed for Cape Coral High’s math team for four years, said it was a good competition. He’ll also miss the team when he attends the University of Florida this fall to pursue a degree in engineering.
“It was nice to be able to compete with people from across the nation,” said Ramey. “I have been a part of it for last four years and it has been a pretty big part of my life.”
Besides scoring fourth place in Calculus, Ramey earned third place on the Area and Volume topic test, eighth place in Limits and Derivatives topic test and eighth place in Sequences and Series topic test.
Cape Coral High School hasn’t sent a student to compete in nationals since Pease went to Denver, Colo., as a high school student in 2001 under the guidance of math teacher Jim Propert.
“Kyle, I would say, is one of the best Calculus students that Lee County has ever seen, if not the best,” said Pease. “He had an amazing year this year.”
Earlier this year Ramey scored first place in the regional competition, which includes students from Tampa Bay to Miami, and was ranked number one in the State of Florida. There are five regions in Florida, said Pease, which takes the same tests together.
Ramey and Pease missed the final awards ceremony on July 23 because they were scheduled to leave early, but Ramey said he earned a trophy at the end of the convention.
Kyle is the son of Cape Coral residents Norman and Helen Ramey.