In one of this year’s most intense international competitions, the United States has come out as best in the world — and this time, we’re not talking about soccer.
This week, the top-ranked math students from high schools around the country went head-to-head with competitors from more than 100 countries at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And, for the first time in more than two decades, they won.
Po-Shen Loh, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and head coach for Team USA, says the competition is held over the course of two days. Students work on three math problems each.
“If you can even solve one question,” Loh tells NPR’s Arun Rath, “you’re a bit of a genius.”
The atmosphere at the Olympiad is intensely still.
“I will say that it’s not really a super-great spectator sport, in the sense that if you are watching them, it will look like they are thinking,” he says. “Although I will assure you that inside their heads, if you could spectate, that would be quite a sport.”
The U.S. team last won the Olympiad in 1994. Reports in recent years have raised concerns that American math students are falling behind those in the rest of the world. But, Loh says, “At least in this case with the Olympiads, we’ve been able to prove that our top Americans are certainly at the level of the top people from the other countries.”
by MindMake via MindMake Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment