Area Students Win West River Math Contest at South Dakota Mines

South Dakota Mines hosted the 71st annual West River Math Contest on Monday, May 8. In total, 552 middle and high school students from across the region attended the annual contest that includes Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry, Advanced Math, and Masters categories. The exams are created and written by math professors at Mines. Thirty-nine schools came from western South Dakota as well as northwest Nebraska. Free lunches were provided to all participants thanks to donations from the most recent Raising for Rockers fundraising event.

Grading was done by the entire faculty of the Department of Mathematics at Mines, additional faculty from the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics, and Nanoscience and Biomedical Engineering, and two math faculty from Black Hills State University. A photo album from the contest is here.

The top five contestants in each category went home with awards. The full list of winners can be found here. The top schools were also awarded the Julie J. Dahl Award for Best Team Performance. The 2023 overall team winners were St. Thomas More High School in Class B and Scottsbluff High School in Class A.

Mines has held the contest since 1950. Mines President Jim Rankin, PhD PE, took part in the event as a student in Ft. Pierre before he entered college. “Congratulations to all of the winners and participants who took part in this year's event,” says Rankin. “Whether they won awards or not, everyone has what it takes to be the future problem solvers and STEM innovators who will tackle the world's most pressing issues.”

Next year's West River Math Contest is slated for May 6, 2024.