Discovery mathematicians ace 2012 Fall Startup
The 2012 Fall Startup was no problem, written or otherwise, for the math team at Discovery Middle School.
Discovery won third place in the middle school division. Joey Li placed eighth individually in the nation, and Winston Van ranked in 20th place. “They will each receive certificates for their individual achievements from National Assessment & Testing,” coach Julie Goldston said.
“This is our first year to participate in the competitions offered by National Assessment,” Goldston said. “The test is geared more toward high school students.”
Based in Seattle, Wash., National Assessment & Testing administers high-quality mathematics competitions, primarily for high schools.
In seventh grade, math team members are Meenu Bhooshanan, Kim Dang, Alan Grissom, Warren He, Misa Ito, Shantanu Kadam, Sean Lee, Brett Manis, Erin Martin, Jane Newberry, Kate Newberry, Joseph Shi, Grey Vandeberg, Ryan Williams, Marshall Wu and Melody Zhang.
Eighth-graders are Jasmine Atassi, Mindy Foster, Amelia Goldston, Carsten Grove, Hyun-woo Kim, Daniel Li, Joey Li, Nihar Patel, Tahseen Robbani, Tyler Tolbert, Ada Vander Zijp-Tan and Winston Van.
In thirty minutes, students were given a test with 100 items. “Students are not expected to complete the test,” Goldston said. “Test items are open-ended questions, not multiple choice.” The paper-and-pencil tests are mailed to National Assessment for results.
“Some questions on the test dealt with topics not taught yet in middle school,” Goldston said.
Goldston supplied a sample question for the National Assessment test: “What is the area, in square meters, of an ellipse with axes measuring ten meters and twelve meters?”
In notifying Discovery on the test results, Thomas F. Clymer, director of academic competitions with National Assessment & Testing, said the top three middle schools were selected with the sum of their top four student scores.
The math team at Discovery is open to anyone “willing to give a lot of extra time to learn how to solve difficult math problems,” Goldston said.
Formerly, Goldston also coached the math team at Rainbow Elementary School.
For more information, visit natassessment.com.
