Fair Lawn Students' Math Paper Finishes In Top 1% In National Competition

FAIR LAWN, NJ — Four high school students showed their math wizardry and found ways to help preserve the National Park System.

Alexander Eng, Nicholas Cicero, Matthew Gordon and Philip Melnick placed in the top 1 percent of papers submitted for the Moody's Mega Math Challenge, a national mathematical modeling contest for high school juniors and seniors. Students experience what it is like to work as a team to tackle a real-world problem.

The four students had 14 hours to write a paper discussing the preservation of the National Park System. The paper had to include mathematical models that examined tidal changes, climate-related events and financial resources.

Of the more than 6,500 papers submitted, the Fair Lawn students finished in the top 5o or in the top 0.7 percent of all papers submitted.

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Photo: Philip Melnick, Matthew Gordon, Alexander Eng and Nicholas Cicero/Courtesy of Karen Rood