Boyce students excel in international math competition
A team of Boyce Middle School students was named to the National Math Olympiad Honor Roll for scoring in the top 10 percent among 3,154 teams from 44 countries in the international Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary and Middle School program.
Phillip Markovitz was one of only 71 sixth graders out of 77,774 students in his division to earn the Dr. George Lenchner Medallion, in recognition for achieving a perfect score.
Winners of the Gold Pin for scoring in the top two percent of all registered students were sixth graders Phillip Markovitz, Alex Todd, Ben Wasson, Quinton Miller, Keshav Narasimhan and Evan Sarkett as well as fifth graders Brian McFerran, Lucas Bishop and Leona Chen.
Silver pins were awarded to 15 Boyce students who scored among the top 10 percent including: sixth graders Rebecca Lang, Carter McClintock-Comeaux, Sahil Bhalodia, Maya Leyzarovich, John Scherer, Jasmine Dietiker, Carter Chui, Matthew Earley, Colin Liang and Mariah Rainier as well as fifth graders Libby Eannarino, Alex Sun, Mahir Parmar and Arya Patel.
Mathletes participated in a series of five monthly contests of five problems each from November through March as well as weekly practice sessions under the supervision and coaching of Kathy Hoedeman, math resource teacher.
Since 2010, Boyce Middle School’s accelerated math students have participated in the international Math Olympiads. Created in 1977 by Dr. George Lenchner, an internationally known math educator, the Math Olympiads went public in 1979.
The stated goals of the program are as follows:
- To stimulate enthusiasm and a love for Mathematics
- To introduce important Mathematical concepts
- To teach major strategies for problem solving
- To develop Mathematical flexibility in solving problems
- To strengthen Mathematical intuition
- To foster Mathematical creativity and ingenuity
- To provide for the satisfaction, joy, and thrill of meeting challenges
