Broadcasting the successes of the Williston Math Team

NEML #6 Results

March 24, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

The Williston Math Team just finished taking the sixth (and last) round of the New England Math League competition, and ended up scoring a 27, tying our highest round score of the year!

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 3.55.52 PM — Looking over solutions while snacking!

15 students participated in this round of the New England Math League, with participants spanning 7th through 12th grades! Each competitor had 30 minutes to work by themselves on the same 6 questions. Each question was worth one point and calculators could be used.

With our round 5 score of 27, our team score now stands at 146!

Our average score per participant this round was 4.07, our highest of the year!

Our 2015 NEML top scorers:
7th: Kenneth Wang (12), Tadea Martin-Gonzalez (8)
8th: Ryan Dwyer (7), Dora Gordon (1)
9th: Jack Lee (30), Shirley Zhou (28)
10th: Nam Pham (9), Molly Zawacki (3)
11th: Mike Huang (8), Ryan Jeon (7)
12th: Umi Keezing (29), Michael Tran (25)

Here are the complete scores from round 6:

First Name	Last Name	Gr	NEML6: Total
Umi	Keezing	12	6
Jack (Dong Ha)	Lee	9	6
Lena	Gandeva	12	5
Hannah	Lee	12	5
Loren	Po	12	5
Cade	Zawacki	12	5
Shirley	Zhou	9	5
Cici	Zhang	12	4
Derrick	Zhao	9	4
Soo Jeong	Han	12	3
Nate	Manwell	PG	3
Tadea	Martin-Gonzalez	7	3
Michael	Tran	12	3
Kenneth	Wang	7	3
Violeta	Ilina	12	1

Complete results can be found on the results page (ask Mr. Seamon for the password).

Posted in: AMC 10/12

AMC 10/12B Scores

March 24, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

On Wednesday, 2/25, 28 student sat for the AMC 10/12B competitions.

Congratulations on a very strong showing! Our top three competitors in each competition:

AMC 10B:
1) Jack Lee (114)
2) Shirley Zhou (105)
3) Sarah Lee (91.5)

AMC 12B:
1) Tanmay Khale (117)
2) James Kim (82.5)
3) Mike Huang (78)

In order to qualify for the AIME, a student needed to earn above a 100 on the AMC 12B or above 120 on the AMC 10B.

Special recognition goes to the one Williston student who qualified for the AIME, Tanmay Khale! Congratulations Tanmay!

Here’s the complete score rundown:

More detailed team results can be found on the results page.

Posted in: AMC 10/12

NEML#5 Results

March 2, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

The league-wide results for round 5 of the New England Math League have been posted.

We are currently holding strong at 32nd place (out of 141) in all of New England and 15th (out of 80) in MA!

The top 34 teams after the 5th round of the New England Math League.

The 6th and LAST New England Math League competition of the year will be held on Tuesday, 3/24 from 2:35 to 3:30pm in SH25. Everyone is welcome to compete! Remember that you need to start the competition before 3pm and you can use a calculator. Snacks will be served starting at 3:30pm when we start going over the answers in SH25.

Posted in: NEML

Visiting the Museum of Math!

February 23, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

$Museum of Math Logo$ On Sunday, 2/22, a few members of the Math Team and I had a fantastic day visiting the Museum of Math in Manhattan!

Photos from our trip are online, as well as a few video clips.

We left Williston at 7am and headed south for New Haven where we caught a train at Union Station that took is straight in to Grand Central. We got a quick bite to eat in Grand Central before walking about a mile south to the Museum of Math!

The greatest surprise of the day was how wonderful the weather turned out! Our walk to the Museum of Math was full of sun and the hum of NYC!

Inside the Museum of Math we found two floors filled with a myriad of interactive stations! We immediately had a round on the bike with square wheels…

…and then moved over to the “Position, Velocity, and Acceleration” station!

Downstairs we had a fantastic time on the “Right Turn Maze”…

Edit Post ‹ Math Team — WordPress — Right turn maze! Can you find the correct path?

…and the fractal dancing projection booth!

After a solid two hours exploring all of the stations, we went back out into the city and walked north west through Times Square!

We then caught the subway to American Museum of Natural History where we saw the “Dark Universe” IMAX show at the Hayden Planetarium! Amazing show, especially with the narration by Neil deGrasse Tyson!

Back outside in the sun, we walked a diagonal across Central Park, to the southwest corner of the park, past the skating rink and many great views of the city.

We then walked south down 5th avenue, checking out the shops and making a pass by the Rockefeller skating rink.

We then wrapped up our time in the city with a very tasty Japanese dinner, before hoping back on a train at Grand Central bound for New Haven.

We made it back to campus around 9:45pm, excited by all that we had seen and done during the day. We can’t wait to return next year!

Posted in: Trips

NEML #5: Results

February 17, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

The Williston Math Team just finished taking the fifth round of the New England Math League competition, scoring a very respectable 21!

22 students participated in this round of the New England Math League, with participants spanning 7th through 12th grades! Each competitor had 30 minutes to work by themselves on the same 6 questions. Each question was worth one point and calculators could be used.

With our round 5 score of 21, our team score now stands at 119.

Our average score per participant this round was 2.68.

The next NEML competition will be held on Tuesday, March 24th at 3pm in Schoolhouse 27. Anyone is welcome to participate!

Overall top scorers by grade after 4 rounds:
7th: Kenneth Wang (9)
8th: Ryan Dwyer (7)
9th: Jack Lee (25)
10th: Nam Pham (9)
11th: Mike Huang (8)
12th: Umi Keezing (23)

Here’s everyone who scored a 3 or higher:

First Name	Last Name	Grade	NEML 5: Total
Jack (Dong Ha)	Lee	9	5
Soo Jeong	Han	12	4
James	Kim	12	4
Loren	Po	12	4
Michael	Tran	12	4
Cade	Zawacki	12	4
Lena	Gandeva	12	3
Umi	Keezing	12	3
Gleb	Paschenko	12	3
Emily	Peirent	12	3
Matt	Steinberg	12	3
Molly	Zawacki	10	3
Cici	Zhang	12	3
Derrick	Zhao	9	3
Shirley	Zhou	9	3

Complete results can be found on the results page (ask Mr. Seamon for the password).

Posted in: NEML

Everest, Enlightenment, and Cash: Be like Andrew Wiles and join the Math Team!

February 11, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

This morning I gave an announcement in assembly on why I think everyone should join the Math Team: Everest, Enlightenment, and Cash!

Everest, enlightenment, and cash

Who wants to see the hardest math problem in the world?

What if I told you everyone in this room could understand the problem?

Let’s get warmed up.

Who can tell me the answer to any of these questions?

If you had a calculator, could you solve them all?

3,4,5 and 5,12,13 and 7,24,25 are called Pythagorean Triples. How many of them do you think there are?

More than a millennium ago, people started looking for other triples… for higher powered triples with all positive integers. Solutions to equations like these:

As hard as people searched, no one could seemingly find any. But not finding something doesn’t mean it’s not necessarily there. So people kept searching… and searching.

Are you ready to see the hardest math problem in the world?

In 1637 Pierre de Fermat wrote in the margins of a famous book called Arithmetica that he had a proof but it was too large to fit into the margin.

Mathematicians kept looking for a proof. For 50 years, for 100 years… for 300 years.

The search ended in 358 years later in 1995 when Andrew Wiles, a professor at Princeton, completed a proof.

Why? What’s the value? Why did Andrew Wiles devote 7 years of his life to solving a problem that had fascinated him since the age of 10?

Everest: The tallest mountain in the world of math was THERE.

Enlightenment: In the process of creating his proof, Andrew Wiles created who new fields of math that help us understand how the Universe works.

Cash: He has been awarded a tremendous amount of money for his proof. In fact, in 2000, the Clay Institute named seven “Millennium Problems”. A correct solution to any one of the problems results in a $1,000,000 prize. At of today, six of the problems remain unsolved.

If you have any interest in climbing Everest, finding enlightenment, and becoming rich, then….

Join the math team.

2/17: Anyone can show up to participate in the New England Math League. After 4 rounds we are holding a very strong 23rd place out of all 141 teams in New England, and 14 out of 80 in MA. No sign up is necessary. Just show up!

2/22: Come to New York City with us! We have a couple spots left on our bus! Sign up right here!

2/25: Sign up to compete in the American Mathematics Competition. This is the first level competition to find the team that will represent the United States in the International Math Olympiad. Sign up right here!

Remember, you can have it all: Everest, Enlightenment, and Cash.

Posted in: Announcements

NEML Standings, AMC 10/12 Signups, and NYC!

February 2, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

The next Math Team meeting will take place Tuesday, 2/3 from 3 to 3:30pm in SH25. Anyone is welcome to attend!

+NEML
The league-wide results for the 4th round of the New England Math League are in… and we did very well! Our current overall score of 98 puts us at 23rd in all of New England (out of 141 teams) and 12th (out of 80 teams) in MA!

A special shoutout goes out to Umi Keezing and Shrley Zhou for their perfect scores!

You can view the current league-wide score report document, and complete team stats on the results page.

The next NEML competition will be on Tuesday, 2/17 from 2:35 to 3pm in SH25. You must start the competition before 3pm.

+AMC 10/12
The American Mathematics Competition 10 & 12 will take place on Wednesday, 2/25 from 8:30 to 10am in Plimpton. The competition is open to any Williston student who registers online by Wednesday, 2/11 @ 3pm.

The AMC 10 is a 25-question, 75-minute, multiple choice examination in secondary school mathematics containing problems which can be understood and solved with algebra and geometry concepts. The AMC 12 is a 25-question, 75-minute, multiple choice examination in secondary school mathematics containing problems which can be understood and solved with pre-calculus concepts. Two different versions of the contests are given on two dates, about two weeks apart, in February. Each AMC 10 and AMC 12 contest contain about 12 of the same math problems.

In general, all 11th graders and above should sign up for the AMC 12 and all 10th graders and below should sign up for the AMC 10. Both exams are given at the same time and you can only take one.

$Museum of Math Logo$ +NYC Trip
The Williston Math Team will be making a day trip to New York City on Sunday, 2/22. We’ll be visiting the Museum of Math, eating a couple fun meals, and exploring Manhattan!

You can read complete details about the trip right here. In order to participate in the trip, you must sign up online by Friday, 2/6 @ 3pm.

Posted in: AMC 10/12, NEML, Trips

New York City Trip!

January 22, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

$Museum of Math Logo$ We’re headed to New York City on Sunday, 2/22!

Here’s what you need to know:
– 14 spots are available
– In order to sign up, you must fill out the short online signup form and hand Mr. Seamon $10.
– The trip leaves at 7am on Sunday, 2/22 and returns that day by 10pm.
– Signups are due by Friday, 2/6 at 6pm. [I fully expect this trip to fill out well before then.]

Trip itinerary:
7am: Depart from the parking lot behind the Chapel
8:30am: Take the train from New Haven to NYC
11am: Eat lunch in NYC
Noon to 3pm: Visit the Museum of Math!
3 to 6pm: Explore NYC [5th Avenue! Central Park! The Hayden Planetarium!]
6pm: Dinner in NYC
7:30pm: Train back to New Haven
10pm: Arrive back on campus

Posted in: Trips

NEML #4: Results

January 20, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

The Williston Math Team just finished taking the fourth round of the New England Math League competition, scoring a very strong 25!

19 students participated in this round of the New England Math League, with participants spanning 7th through 12th grades! Each competitor had 30 minutes to work by themselves on the same 6 questions. Each question was worth one point and calculators could be used.

With our round 4 score of 25, our team score now stands at 98.

Our average score per participant this round was 2.63.

The next NEML competition will be held on Tuesday, February 17th at 3pm in Schoolhouse 27. Anyone is welcome to participate!

Overall top scorers by grade after 4 rounds:
7th: Kenneth Wang (8)
8th: Ryan Dwyer (6)
9th: Shirley Zhou (20), Jack Lee (19)
10th: Nam Pham (8)
11th: Mike Huang (8), Ryan Jeon (7)
12th: Umi Keezing (20), Michael Tran (18)

Here’s everyone who scored a 3 or higher:

First Name	Last Name	Gr	NEML 4: Total
Shirley	Zhou	9	6
Umi	Keezing	12	6
Michael	Tran	12	5
Gleb	Paschenko	12	4
Alex	Li	12	4
Jack	Lee	9	4
Derrick	Zhao	9	3
Cade	Zawacki	12	3
Loren	Po	12	3

Complete results can be found on the results page (ask Mr. Seamon for the password).

Posted in: NEML

AMC 8 Results

January 8, 2015 Josh Seamon Leave a comment

We had a fantastic showing in the AMC 8 math competition! Our performance is especially impressive given that this was the first time Williston participated in the AMC 8!

The competition was 40 minutes long and was made up of 25 multiple choice questions. Calculators were not allowed.

22 @WillistonNS 7th and 8th graders just started the #AMC8 math competition! #GoWildcats! http://t.co/TZU7JhPf3A pic.twitter.com/N6itCEYnC5

— Josh Seamon (@MrJoshSeamon) November 18, 2014

Overall, 13 7th graders and 9 8th graders participated. Our overall average score was 11.5, with the 8th graders averaging 12.8 and the 7th graders averaging 10.6.

Here are our medal winners!

Medal – Name (Grade, Score)
Gold – Kenneth Wang (7th, 16)
Gold – Caitlyn Reid (8th, 15)
Silver – Nat Markey (7th, 14)
Silver – Conrad Kang (7th, 14)
Silver – Caleb Stern (8th, 14)
Bronze – Aiden McCreary (8th, 13)
Bronze – Orlee Marini Rapaport (8th, 13)
Bronze – Ryan Dwyer (8th, 13)
Bronze – Julia Farnham (7th, 13)
Bronze – Dora Gordon (8th, 13)

Congratulations!

Our full score report is available on the results page. Ask Mr. Seamon if you’d like the password to the page.

Posted in: AMC 8