|
|
By: Carlo Nerecena February 10, 2006 Darwin Ivan Carrasco, a grade 6 student from Pamplona Elementary School, entered the 4th Ateneo Mathematics Olympiad for Grade School as the lone participant coming from a public school. He walked away as the lone gold medallist from that event. Carrasco was among the eighteen math wizards who represented the Mathematics Trainers' Guild in this year's AMO, held last February 2 and 10 at the Ateneo Grade School. For the 2nd straight year, the MTG Kids went toe-to-toe with more than 50 of their counterparts from the Ateneo de Manila University in a unique showdown patterned after the prestigious International Mathematics Olympiad. Carrasco won the gold medal in the combined Grades 5 and 6 division, after being the lone participant to answer all three of the given questions correctly. Joining him as medallists in this division are: Carmela Antoinette Lao (Grade 5, St. Jude Catholic School) who won the silver, and Miguel Sebatian Santos (Grade 5, Southridge School) who won the bronze. Meanwhile, in the Grade 7 division, no gold medal was handed out because none of the participants were able to reach the required criteria of being able to get at least moderately correct solutions in all three questions. However, three MTG Kids, two of which are actually in Grade 6, still managed to win medals. They are: Alvin Uy-Lim (Gr. 6, Grace Christian High School) who won silver, Zhang Zi Xin (Grade 6, Grace Christian) who won bronze, and Geraldine Baniqued (Grade 7, St. Paul's College, Pasig) who also won bronze. Ateneo also had its share of medals from the individual contest. They had one bronze medallist in the Grades 5 and 6 division, and a silver and a broze medallist in the Grade 7 division. In the special team side-event of the AMO, wherein MTG Kids and Ateneans were put together in same teams, Team Q, which had Vance Eldric Go (Grade 5, St. Jude) and Wyeth Sy (Grade 6, St. Stephen's High School), finished first. They were the lone team that had more than one MTG Kid member. Second place then went to Team D, which had Aldric Cristoval Reyes (Grade 6, Chiang Kai Shek College), while third place went to Team H, which had Geraldine Baniqued. The AMO is a brain-child of Ateneo President Fr. Bienvenido P. Nebres, and Dr. Jose Marasigan and Dr. Queena Lee Chua of the Ateneo Mathematics Department. The organizers started inviting the MTG to participate in the AMO last year, in order to benchmark the progress of its own training program with that of the MTG, and to foster Filipino camarederie among Filipino gifted students (Lee-Chua). Congratulations to the winners! |
