"The problems are all challenging, and it's a lot more fun than regular problems in math—and they're word problems," said fifth-grader Graham Garland.

Math Olympiad is a worldwide program that teaches elementary and middle school students to think of math in a different light and supplies exercises to foster that thinking. At Foothill, parent volunteers go into fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms, teach lessons, offer help to students and grade test problems. The program is independent of the classroom curriculum and does not use school funds.

The lessons promote a "deeper level of understanding that make math fun," said co-chairwoman Leslie Francis.

"It's an outstanding program because it really gives kids exposure," said Mary Tembrock, a fifth-grade teacher. Not only are students not allowed to use calculators, they must use "higher-level thinking skills."

Sample questions from a timed elementary-level test include: "A grocer bought 15 dozen oranges at $1 a dozen. She threw away 20 rotten oranges and then sold the rest at eight oranges for 85 cents. How much profit did the grocer make, in dollars and cents?" (Answer: $2)

And: "A firefighter stood on the middle rung of a ladder, went up three rungs, was forced down five rungs, and then went up seven rungs to extinguish the fire. Then the firefighter climbed the remaining six rungs to the top of the ladder. How many rungs are there on the entire ladder?" (Answer: 23 rungs)

According to Francis, Foothill's fifth-graders received the "highest achievement" team award for earning scores in the top 10 percent around the world. While all students in the two grades participated in the dozen lessons, not all of them chose to enter their test questionnaires in the Math Olympiad contest.

Fifth-grader Steven Lee received a perfect score on all five of the tests. "I've never seen anyone score this high," Tembrock said. For his perfect score, Lee received a George Lenchner gold medallion, named after the founder of Math Olympiad, as well as the trophy that was awarded to every participating student.

While Tembrock says Lee is "an outstanding, all-around student" who "is really helpful to others," he also "excels in every academic subject"—especially math. Last year, Lee was in the 99th percentile of students in the STAR test, and next year he will be taking seventh-grade advanced math instead of taking classes at Redwood Middle School.

"I just tried to answer the problems," Lee said simply. "They're challenging and they're different from the regular math problems."

Lee said he likes the Math Olympiad problems because they're word problems. "I just really like to read, and math is really easy for me," he said.

Sarah Hansen and Garland also received gold pin awards at the school's Math Olympiad assembly.