it’s a common complaint that today’s students only care about grades and rarely pursue projects for the sake of learning, but a group of high school students in Palo Alto recently proved that intellectual curiosity is still very much alive among this generation.
This past November four teams from Palo Alto High School competed in the High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HIMCM), an international math competition with a unique, collaborative model. Rather than pitting individual students against each other, the HIMCM requires students to work in teams to solve a real life problem. Although 2015 marked the 17th year of the HIMCM, it was the first year that Palo Alto students participated, upon the suggestion of PAUSD’s new superintendent, Dr. Max McGee.
“Dr. McGee’s previous school had competed in the HIMCM and he thought it would be fun for Palo Alto students to try it,” explained Radu Toma, the Paly math teacher who acted as an advisor for the students. “I suggested it to my classes and even though I offered no extra credit or incentive, a number of students were immediately interested.”
The four students who won, Kathryn Li, Eric Foster, Andrew Lee and Allison Zhang, formed the only team from Paly with both boys and girls. The four juniors enrolled in BC Calculus have known each other since sixth grade but had never worked together before the competition. Despite this lack of experience, they jumped into a collaborative environment that would test the dynamics of even the most seasoned team.
The students had just 36 hours to complete the HIMCM math modeling problem, working at Paly from 10am-10pm on a Saturday in November, sleeping, then returning home the next day to work again from 10am-10pm. There were a total of four student teams all working on their HIMCM problems at Paly that weekend, although they were forbidden from interacting with each other. They were allowed to use anything “inanimate” for help, namely the Web, books and other resources.
For the 2014 HIMCM, the Paly students had a choice of two questions, and picked one that required modeling the amount of time it would take to load commuters on and off of trains at a particular station. Although the question was long, it provided maddeningly few specifics. This meant that the Paly teams had to research and identify many different factors – such as the number of passengers that would fit in a train, how long it would take them to walk off the platform, whether there were wheelchairs, etc., then run these scenarios through five levels of modeling.
Allison, Kathryn, Eric and Andrew’s winning submission was over 30 pages by the time they finished it on Sunday night, including formulas, written explanations, graphs and citations. “The best part was at the end when we plugged in the numbers to check our assumptions for the final time,” Eric remembers. “We tested how long it would take to load 12,000 people onto the train and the answer
Radu Toma, Paly math teacher with Eric Foster, Andrew Lee, Kathryn Li and Allison Zhang, national winners of the HIMCM competition
came out correct. That was a great feeling.”
Although the students completed the process in November, Mr. Toma just learned in late January that Allison, Kathryn, Eric and Andrew were chosen as one of two high school teams to represent the United States in the international competition. In addition, one of the other Paly teams won a prestigious national finalist award. HIMCA winners are chosen based on a review process by COMAP (the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, the non-profit organization that runs the competition.
“I am so proud of what these students have accomplished through their motivation and follow through,” said Mr. Toma. “They are bright and curious, plus they the have the stamina and courage to complete a 33-page paper in two days!”
So were they driven by parents or other outside adults to try the HIMCM? According to the kids, not at all. They just like to do math and thought it would be a fun challenge.
The next step for Allison, Eric, Kathryn and Andrew is to prepare for the international competition in April, a five day ordeal that is sure to test their skills for both collaboration and mathematics. Between 13-15 countries will compete at the international level, requiring the Paly team to go up against math powerhouses such as Hong Kong and China.
Regardless of what happens next with HIMCM, these Paly students all agree on one thing: math matters. “Math modeling is useful in so many fields,” explained Kathryn. “It’s great to know how to use the math skills and knowledge we gained in the classroom to solve real problems.”
