Page 59 - The Exceptional Harley Fetterman

THE EXCEPTIONAL HARLEY FETTERMAN

skilled at supporting opinions contrary to his classmates backed up by
his impressive perseverance, analytical and critical thinking skills.

Even when Harley was no longer in Whitney Shumate's class, he
still stopped by to visit frequently, often carrying on discussions about
their shared interests. He shared ideas on his future inventions in
Assistive Technology—which he swore her to secrecy to protect his
trademark plans. He shared additional thoughts on personal concerns
such as his need to gain back the weight he had lost during his
chemotherapy treatments—could he possibly convince his parents of
his dream to eat at Whataburger every day?
In March of 2013, Harley once again proved his mastery of
mathematics when he competed in the District Number Sense contest
in Austin for Texas UIL, University Interscholastic League which
exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic, and
music contests.
The UIL was created by The University of Texas at Austin in 1910
and has grown into the largest inter-school organization of its kind in
the world. The Number Sense Contest involves a ten-minute, 80
question “mental” math test covering all high school mathematics
courses. Answers to questions are calculated in one's head without use
of pencil and paper.
Besides, addition, subtraction, multiplication & division of whole
numbers, fractions, and decimals, testing also included: squaring
numbers, percent problems, English/metric, length, area, capacity,
time, substitution problems, equations, square roots, cube roots,
greatest common divisor (GCD), least common multiple (LCM),
prime numbers, divisors, perimeter/area (of square, rectangle, circle),
ratio/proportion, inverses, Pythagorean theorem, volume/surface area
(of rectangular solid/cube), area (of parallelogram, rhombus,
trapezoid, circle), repeating decimals, powers of numbers, volume (of
circular cylinder, cone, sphere), sequences & series, multiplication (of
101, 111), factorial coordinate geometry, and probability.
Harley was in his “prime” element when solving mathematical
problems “in his head” and with a wide grin on his face!

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