Excerpts from student journals:

Coin Combos was a project that we did at the 2006 Rincon Valley Union School District BiMathlon. We were supposed to make $8.32 out of 50 coins. We used a spreadsheet to check our guesses, but then we had to erase the answers off the spreadsheet after copying the answer on a separate piece of paper. We had to copy it onto a separate recording sheet so we could keep track of combinations we already had. A prize tee shirt was awarded to the person who found 5 different answers on the recording sheet first. It was very fun and a lot of people enjoyed it. This project was held on the first of the two days of the BiMathlon.
Mackensie and Naomi

On the first day of the BiMathlon we did Coin Combos.  Coin Combos is a money game were we had to make $8.32 with fifty coins, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars.  When we found a way we had to write it down on a recording sheet of paper.  The one who got the most ways got a prize.  It was very difficult to make $8.32 with 50 coins because we had ways to make the total, but they didn’t have fifty coins or we had fifty coins which didn’t equal $8.32.

I only got four ways, but the person who got the prize had about 7 ways.  One time I got $8.32 but I didn’t have fifty coins so I had to fix it.  It sometimes was tricky.
Trysha

In the BiMathlon my favorite part was when we got to go on the computer and play Coin Combos.  We had to make $8.32 with only 50 coins.  We used a spread sheet to do the calculations. When we got an answer we would have to write it down on a piece of paper.  I only got three answers.  The winner of the prize found 6 solutions.
Kyle