On April 5 North Shore Middle School hosted its first annual invitational Math Olympiad tournament, in which 210 students competed from across Long Island.
This day of exciting competition and camaraderie was a major event, comprising several rounds of competition. In the STEM Challenge, teams of five from each school competed in a design and engineering challenge. Students reported that the successful teams on this challenge needed to demonstrate strong collaboration and communication skills, as well as creativity. There were also three rounds of competition that involved solving unconventional math problems: an individual round, a team round, and a mixed team round, where students were grouped with peers from other schools and needed to quickly form collaborative relationships in order to prevail.
The winners for each event were:
Individual Round: Christopher Barton, Miller Place Middle School
Team Round: Herricks Middle School (Tyler Wu, Ashley Lam, Ashish Jalwan, Connie Huang, Orik Ehren)
Mixed Round: Nathaniel Brower (North Shore), Seva Kantu (Manhasset), Griffin Kanzer (Huntington), Khushnood Rahim (East Islip), and Connie Huang (Herricks)
STEM Round: Manhasset Middle School (Sean Lim, Haotian Cheng, Ericka Lai, Julia Moosikasuwan, Benjamin Punzalan)
North Shore’s own mathletes and technology teachers pitched in with the very personal touch of designing and 3D printing the trophies as well as cutting the winner’s medals on the high school’s CNC router. These awards were fitting for the awesome celebration of problem solving that took place at this special event.
Amy DiMeola, secondary STEAM director said, “These friendly competitions are excellent opportunities for students to develop positive attitudes towards analytical thinking and mathematics, which can serve them as they prepare for college and career pathways that demand those attributes.” She added, “They meet peers from around Long Island and begin to create camaraderie among familiar faces from schools across Long Island, build those critically important collaboration skills and push one another’s thinking. We look forward to continuing to involve our students in these types of events, and of course, hosting this one again next year.”
Submitted by North Shore Schools
