Schools

Students Show Skills, Raise Money During Math Month

Contest winners announced by Hillsborough High School.

announced the winners of its Math Month competitions. The contests are in their 26th year and are run by department supervisor Dr. Maria Szijj.

Money for prizes have been donated each year by Van Cleef Engineering and . For this and last year, the Lukazik family of Hillsborough contributed additional money in order to increase the awards. 

As part of the celebration of Math Month, students contributed $840 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The money was collected using decorated coffee cans in each math teacher's classroom.

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To get things moving, a student made an announcement at the start of the collection urging all students to put in the cans whatever spare change they could spare. It obviously worked. The total donation came to $1,680 after a company offered to double all contributions made during the month.

Listed below are the winners of each contest. 

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The first shows the nine contest problems winners. The problems were posted every other day and involved various areas of math such as algebra, geometry and probability. All math students were invited to enter their answer to the problem each day, with the correct ones put into a jar. The winner was randomly selected. Each day between 25 to 50 percent of the entire school participated.

The second table shows the winner of the button competition, Patty Chan. The purposes of the competition was to extol the usefulness of mathematics artistically within the confines of a button-sized circle. 

The third list is of the winners of the The Usefulness of Mathematics as Expressed Through the Arts contest. In this contest, students are asked to create a work of art (visual, performing, literary) in which they demonstrate the usefulness of mathematics.

Along with Szijj, judging was performed by Joanne Gordon (English department), Lynn Mound (art department) and Jane Staats (math department).  

Contest Problems

No. Winner Math Teacher Grade No. of Entries 1. Kalyn Haver Mrs. Watts 11 1107 2. John Droumbakis Mrs. Staats 10 903 3. Chris Chia Dr. Szijj 10 1006 4. Nathan Paget Ms. Dyer 10 756 5. Oliva Mukendi Mrs. Chiselko 9 693 6. Kathryn Zimmerman Dr. Szijj 10 773 7. Jou Chang Ms. Dyer 11 725 8. Emily Mirabella Mr. Chernoff 12 538 9. Jasmine Brown Ms. Dyer 10 610

* Each contest problem winner received $5

Button Design Winner

Winner Math Teacher Grade Award Patty Chan Dr. Szijj 10 $20

TUOMAETTA: The Usefulness of Mathematics as Expressed Through the Arts

Winner Art Work Math Teacher Grade Prize Matt Blauvelt & Jesse Gonzalez Film on Billiards Dr. Szijj 11 $50 (shared) Jasmine Brown Taj Mahal Ms. Dyer 10 $40 Amanda McHugh Poem Mrs. Staats 10 $20 Nicole Zamarripa Photos: Unit Circle Dancers Mrs. Berliner 11 $20 Zoe Getz Poem Mrs. Chiselko 11 $15 Brittany Smith Dream Catcher of Unit Circle Ms. Dyer 11 $15


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