Monday, January 26, 2009

STUDENT MATH TEAMS WIN AWARDS MODELING NATIONAL DEBT, CARBON SEQUESTRATION




Thirty-two students from Greta Mills's Mathematical Modeling class participated in the 2008 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling, sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. During November student teams constructed solutions to one of two modeling problems within a thirty-six hour period. This year’s choices: develop a model for analyzing and addressing the national debt, or develop a model using carbon sequestration to achieve carbon-emissions neutrality. Solutions were then sent to a regional panel for review and ranking.

The Consortium has now announced that two HHS teams earned the ranking of Regional Outstanding, which was earned by only 18 of the 269 teams competing. In addition to the Regional Outstanding awards, four Hanover teams earned a Meritorious award and three earned an Honorable Mention. Team advisor Greta Mills commends all students for their hard work and creative solutions. Solutions will be published on CD-Rom and in the annual contest journal.

This year 52 schools participated from eleven US states, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul. The top award, National Outstanding, was won by four teams. Hanover’s Mathematical Modeling classes have participated in this contest for five years.

The Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization. Complete results, including the original contest problems, can be found at http://www.comap.com/highschool/contests/himcm/2008results.html