UPPER MACUNGIE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — First in Math creator Robert “Bob” Sun presented a championship banner to Fogelsville Elementary School on Tuesday for leading Carbon and Lehigh County schools in the program’s 2026 Love Math Challenge.
In June, the school announced on Facebook that Fogelsville students solved 182,165 math problems in the contest. That is more than a quarter of the 660,375 problems the Parkland School District said students solved across both counties.
That works out to about 380 problems per student, based on the school’s 480 kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students in 2024-25, the most recent federal count. The district did not say how many students took part, how many schools competed, or which school finished second.
Tony Mirabito of the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 organized the challenge for schools in both counties, and teacher Traci Falco coordinates it for Parkland’s elementary students, the district said.
At Tuesday’s assembly in the school gym, Sun handed the banner to one student from each grade, first through fifth. Students and teachers held up digits spelling out 182,165, and students played the 24 Game alongside legislative guests.
Sarah Hildebrandt, a legislative assistant to state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, presented the school with a citation. Superintendent Mark Madson gave closing remarks before a T-shirt toss.
“Our students have demonstrated extraordinary dedication, perseverance, and enthusiasm throughout the Love Math Challenge,” Principal Lisa Lesko said in a statement. “We are immensely proud of every single student who participated, embraced the challenge, and showed that learning math can be both rigorous and fun.”
Sun created the 24 Game in 1988 and launched First in Math online in 2002, according to the company. Both come from Suntex International, the company Sun leads, which lists its address on Fox Hill Road in Easton.
A 2021 Lafayette College profile described Sun as an Easton resident who grew up as a Chinese immigrant in West Philadelphia in the 1950s.
Two bills that would have the state offer a math program like First in Math to elementary schools at no cost, state Sen. Lisa Boscola’s Senate Bill 422 and state Rep. Robert Freeman’s House Bill 1770, have sat in the Senate and House education committees since 2025.