www.thevoiceofpelham.ca
Page THE VOICE of Pelham Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Notre Dame student excel at mathematics contest BY SARAH MURRELL VOICE Staff Students across Canada recently wrote the Waterloo University Mathematics Contests with five Notre Dame students turning in impressive results. Mackenzie Bell, Grade 9, and Joe Bellantino, Grade 10, were the top
medal winners for Noatre Dame. Marc Mailhot, Grade 11, was the top medal winner for the school and placed fifth overall for the zone (out of 167 students). Mailhot, with Natasha Nagy and Mike Ross, scored the highest team score for the zone. Bell says both of his parents attended Waterloo for math, so the subject has always come pretty easy
for him. Bell, and his fellow contest winners, say they enjoy the logical, simple right or wrong aspect of math. “It’s hard facts. The numbers cooperate,” says Natasha Nagy, noting it has always been her favourite subject. “I used to love playing with money,” she says, noting numbers
have always been her favourite subject. “It’s not based on other people’s opinions,” says Michael Ross. “You know you’re right.” Mailhot says he agrees with his colleagues, noting math simply “makes sense.” “Math is structural,” adds Joe Bellantino. The Grade 10 student has some
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time before he needs to make course choices that will impact his future, so he’s not too sure where he wants to go, but says he’s “open to everything,” when it comes to his future. Bell is more sure, saying he’s thinking of becoming an accountant. For Ross it’s aerospace engineering, a job title that got him some slack from his classmates who said that’s just because it’s such a cool job title. Mailhot plans to study computer science, noting he likes programming. For Nagy, math isn’t even a definite, explaining she likes science too so she’s not sure where she’ll end up. As the only girl from Notre Dame who placed in the math contests, Nagy says there’s only a stereoptype about girls and math if you let it exist. “There’s no reason why I can’t compete with these guys,” she says.
Nagy says she’s acutally a little disappointed in the results of the contest, noting if she had just five minutes more she would have completed the final question and had a better result. Waterloo’s math contests are structured for each Grade level between 7 and 12. Early questions require only concepts found in the curriculum common to all provinces. The last few questions are designed to test ingenuity and insight. Rather than testing content, most of the contest problems test logical thinking and mathematical problem solving. Nagy says that’s one of the things she likes about math, explaining different students approach problems in different ways but can always reach the same answer. “It’s lets you be yourself,” she says. The Grade 11 students are now preparing for the long question test, although Ross says he’s not prepared at all.
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