Florida APH Abacus Math Bee
October 3, 2026
Jacksonville
University of North Florida
Tom and Betty Petway Hall, Building 57
Jacksonville, FL 32224
Student Registration
Due: September 8, 2026
- Administer the placement test to determine your student's contest level
- Download and complete the student registration form
- Student Registration Form
- Submit to Sue Glaser
Non-Contestant Registration
Due: September 15, 2026
- Register here if you are a teacher, parent, guardian, family member, administrator, paraprofessional, vendor, high school/college volunteer, etc. who plans to attend the event.
- Everyone who plans to attend must be registered.
Who is invited?
- 1st-12th grade students with visual impairments who use an abacus, mental math, finger math, counting cubes/manipulatives
- Parents and family members
- Children not competing can participate in workshop and fun activities with family
- Teachers of students with visual impairments, paraprofessionals, administrators, district staff, vendors, volunteers, etc. who are available to assist
How can students be prepared?
- Practice Exams
- Space Race Dictation Samples
- Abacus and Mental Math: Why it Matters
- Find out, What’s up with the abacus? Webinar available at the bottom of the Student and Family Events page.
- Teachers and parents, check out APH’s Access Academy for abacus webinars on multiplication and division.
Teachers and parents sign up for APH's Hive Course, "The Abacus: A Million Manipulatives in Your Pocket." - From APH, Watch ExCEL Summer Camp Webinars on “Abaci and Oreos” from 2022.
- Practice2Master Abacus is available for free through the App Store or Google Play store.
- Practice calculating math problems using an abacus on their own, with a family member, or with a TSVI.
- Keep their mental math skills sharp with real life practice every day.
What is an Abacus Bee?
- A math competition using an abacus, mental math, finger math, or counting cubes/manipulatives to compute multiple problems in a designated timeframe
- An abacus is not required to participate
- 4-6 testing rounds of competition will take place depending on skill level
- Rovers category, for beginner abacus users regardless of age, attend and participate for exposure to the contest. They are provided testing materials but do not compete for prizes and are not eligible for the APH National Finals
- Some rounds will require students to read math problems in print/braille and solve on the abacus or using mental math
- The dictation round will consist of problems being read aloud while students compute on the abacus or mental math and then record the final answer
- Hands-on exploration and activities related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts for students and their family members
- T-shirt and goody bag for participating students
- Lunch for everyone registered
- Workshop for parents and family members to help better prepare students for STEM instruction and learning
- Awards Ceremony with certificates for all student participants and prizes for top three scorers at each competitive level
- High expectations for our students!
What skills do students need?
- Read math problems in large print or braille (type of problem depends on student level). Record their answers in print or braille.
- Write or braille their first/last name, category name and round at the top of each page (if they can only spell their name, that’s fine, we can work with them).
- Write or braille an itemized list (problem letters a, b, c, d, etc.) and answer next to the problem letter.
- For the dictation round, listen to a string of numbers and operations and have to mentally calculate the answer or solve on the abacus and record their answers in the same manner as above.
- Mental math can be used. An abacus is not required.