Twelfth Annual Middle School Math Day

The Department of Mathematical Sciences hosted its twelfth annual Middle School Math Day on Saturday, January 21, 2023. This year, our program returned to an all “in-person” format with 60 students from grades 2-8 in attendance, with two large groups from Pembroke Pines Charter School and The Weiss School. Graduate students, faculty, and staff from the Department of Mathematical Sciences volunteered throughout the day.

The program began with the American Math Competition (AMC) 8 Competition which consisted of a 40-minute test. The contest is sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America.

The top 3 scores are as follows:

• Deanie V. from The Weiss School and Rananjay P. from Davidson Academy (1st Place)
• Neel B. from Boca Raton Community Middle School, Caden D. from Pinecrest Elementary School, Jack S. from Addison Mizner, and Alexandra Wolf from The Weiss School (2nd Place)
• Frederic B. from The Weiss School and David G. from Norman S. Edelcup Sunny Isles Beach K-8 School (3rd Place)

Following lunch, Dr. Francesco Sica delivered a talk which began with a brief introduction to cryptography, followed by examining a cryptographic code made popular by E.A. Poe’s novel The Gold Bug.

Finally, students participated in a math trivia challenge and team contest hosted by Dr. Tomas Schonbek. Here are the first, second, and third place teams:

• First Place – Rananjay P., Paul D., Jack S., and Angela L.
• Second Place – Suhana R., Skandan R, and Erik H.
• Third Place – Jemma N., Harriette G., Luke B., and Oliver D.; Christopher A., Malcolm K., Eduardo D., and Michelangelo F.; Carter G., Stephen C., Daniel D., and David F.

Thank you to our participants for a fantastic day!