Homestead High School finished 14th in the 2005 Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest, a national mathematics contest administered by National Assessment & Testing (www.natassessment.com). While most math competitions encourage rote memorization, familiar problems and quick mental reflexes, the Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest presents schools with 15 unique, intricate problems to be solved over the course of a week. Under the guidance of coach Steve Headley, students worked together using brainstorming, collaboration, research and technology to solve the problems, gaining experience with skills that will be critical in college and their careers.

The 2005 Collaborative Problem-Solving Contest included creative problems accessible to students of all abilities, such as one asking about numbers that can be generated using only one each of the numbers 2 through 5. For example, the number 120 is the largest that can be produced when only addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are allowed: 120 = 2 x 3 x 4 x 5. Other problems on the test started out simply but progressed to some very difficult conclusions. One such problem involved positions attainable in various board games. Early parts of this problem asked how many unique board positions could be achieved after two moves in checkers and chess. Even students wholly unfamiliar with these games could find the rules on the Internet and answer this question quickly (49 and 400, respectively). However, later parts of the problem asked how many unique board positions could be achieved after three moves in checkers, chess and go, which required in-depth analysis of many intermediate positions, as well as knowledge of unique rules such as the forced capture rule in checkers and the ability of players to pass in go.

National Assessment & Testing administers mathematics competitions that high schools can participate in through the mail.