Abington Students Clean Up in Math Competitions

Denise Mendez, Abington School District Coordinator of Mathematics and Elementary Science, presented awards to elementary and junior high school students at the June 7 school board meeting.

Mendez said that during the school year, Abington elementary, junior and senior high school students participated and excelled in a variety of county, state, national, and international mathematics competitions.

The elementary and junior high school students participated in, and won awards in the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition, the Atlantic-Pacific Math Competition, the Pennsylvania Mathematics League, the MathFax Contest, the Mathcounts competition and the Mathematical Olympiads.

The Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition invites students to submit original posters based on student-centered data collection and analysis. Students may work individually or in teams. Posters must be the original design and creation of the entrants themselves and represent more than one aspect of the data in one graph or by using more than one graph.

The Mathematical Olympiad is an international competition that has an award system to recognize team and individual accomplishments.  There are three types of team awards: a special plaque for “Highest Team Achievement,” given to teams whose scores are in the top 10 percent of all participants; a “Certificate of High Achievement,” given to teams in the next 10 percent; and a “Certificate of Meritorious Achievement,” given to teams that finish in the highest 20 percent in grades four, five or seven.

Eleven Abington teams received awards in these categories this year.  In the individual awards category, gold pins were awarded to students who finish in the top 2 percent of all participants internationally. Twenty-four Abington students finished in this category and received gold pins. In addition, 67 Abington students received silver pins for scoring in the top 10 percent internationally; 298 Abington students have received embroidered patches for scoring in the top 50 percent internationally.

One student received the Lenchner Medallion for a perfect score, which was accomplished by only one-fifth of 1 percent of all participants worldwide.

Rydal Elementary School’s sixth-grade team was awarded a Highest Achievement Plaque, and the fifth-grade team won a Certificate of High Achievement, as well as a Certificate of Meritorious Achievement in the Mathematical Olympiad.  Ryan Grewal and Kedar Kahardkar finished in the top 2 percent and received gold pins. Rydal’s Josiah Campbell, Cordell and Talitha Cheng, Molly Cleary, Jessica Dickstein, Marc Klein, Sarah Lancaster, Emma Riggs, Jake Silverman, Maria Angiolillo and Isabelle Bautista, Ryann and Patrick Kolb, Samantha Krauss, Ryan Lancaster, Brittany Levy and Jason Yan won honorable mention awards in the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition. Charlotte Nadel received a fourth-place ribbon and monetary prize, Emily Marder won a third-place ribbon and monetary prize, and Julian Perez won a first-place ribbon and monetary prize. In addition, Julian Perez and Charlotte Nadel won honorable mention awards in the national contest.

Roslyn Elementary School’s Stefani Rath won a gold pin in the Mathematical Olympiad, and the sixth-grade team won a High Achievement Certificate. 

In the MathFax competition, McKinley Elementary School’s third-grade team ranked third in its division and received a special certificate. David Ghalili ranked third in the division and received a certificate. In the Mathematical Olympiad, McKinley’s sixth-grade team won a Certificate of High Achievement, and the fifth-grade team earned a Meritorious Achievement Certificate.

Highland Elementary School’s Nyah Eichelberger, Helen Hale-Mowry, Robert Morris, and Shane Schader won honorable mention awards in the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition and each received a certificate.

In the Mathematical Olympiad, Overlook Elementary School’s Steven Horvath and Cole Santora won gold pins. In the MathFax competition, Overlook’s third-grade team ranked second among all school participating in the state division and received a special certificate.

Copper Beech Elementary School’s fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade teams received Highest Team Achievement Plaques. In addition, the fourth- and fifth-grade teams won Meritorious Achievement certificates. Seventeen Copper Beech students received gold pins: Christopher Dragomir, Aidan Gales, Gina Heller, Josh Gardner, Matt Thomer, Aidan Coyle, Jason Gales, Jason Park, Rachel Porter, Martha Schultes, Evan Sutch, Julie Gelman, Jacob Good, Bryn MacNichol, Eric Mitchell, Nick Cedera, and Anna McDonough. In addition, Christopher Dragomir was awarded the Lenchner Medallion for a perfect score.

In the MathFax competition, Copper Beech’s third-grade team achieved first place in the state division and first place in the nation. Michael McDonough won first place in the state division and received a trophy and certificate and won fourth place in the nation.  Philip Thomson won second place in the state division and Dominic Ricciardi won third place in the division. 

In the Pennsylvania Mathematics League, the Copper Beech team finished first in the region and received the plaque for the Regional Championship. In addition, Christopher Dragomir won first place in the state. Copper Beech’s Brandon Schaffer, Reece Thomson, and Thomas Michael won second place and received a red ribbon and monetary prize, and Kylie Doyle and Svea Williams won honorable mention certificates in the Pennsylvania Statistics Poster Competition.

Abington Junior High School placed first in the Pennsylvania/Ohio division in the Atlantic-Pacific Competition; incredibly, this is the 17th time in the last 19 years that Abington Junior High School has placed first in its division. In addition, the junior high school placed 10th in the nation. Andy Tran was the high scorer and received a medal as the top scorer in the division.

In the Mathematical Olympiad, the junior high seventh-grade team received a certificate of Meritorious Achievement. In the American Mathematics Competition 12, William Giguere ranked first among Abington students, where he competed among senior high school students, and received an award pin.

A number of individuals in each school—as well as parents—were recognized for the time and effort given to assisting the students as they participated in the various competitions. These included the elementary curriculum specialists, classroom teachers, team coaches, instructional aides and the junior high school mathematics department chair.

Information and photo courtesy of Byron Goldstein/Abington School District