Oak Hill Middle School math/science teacher — and NewtonSTEM board member — Norma Sullivan is retiring this month from the Newton Public Schools, after a career of inspiring many, many students.  She has taught in Newton since 1987, first in fifth grade at Memorial-Spaulding Elementary and since then in sixth grade at Oak Hill.

“I firmly believe that you get the [STEM] hook for kids when they’re in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade.  That’s the age when I can maybe change their thinking.  I look at it as three pillars — Science, Math, and Technology — that support Engineering, and you have to know the pillars to understand Engineering.  If the kids can learn these things for a reason and they know it’s meaningful, then they’ll buy into it more than learning these skills in isolation.” Continue reading Farewell and Many Thanks to Norma Sullivan! →

Congratulations to Newton North HS junior Kavish Gandhi and his Lexington teammate, Noah Golowich, who have won a $50,000 scholarship by achieving second place nationwide in the prestigious Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Last month, the team won the Siemens Region Three Finals and the right to compete in this week’s national finals in Washington, DC.  You can see a video of their 12-minute presentation, Partition Regularity of Linear Homogeneous Equations and Inequalities.

Their research is in the area of Ramsey Theory, which Gandhi described in the NNHS Newtonite as “‘focused on finding patterns and order in sufficiently large systems’ with applications in theoretical computer science, communications networks, cellular networks, positional board games, and molecular structures.”  They conducted their research through the MIT Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science, mentored by mathematics Ph.D. candidate Laszlo Miklos Lovasz.

Kavish says that he became interested in mathematics at a young age, simply from spending time outdoors and taking note of naturally occurring patterns. He has participated in numerous mathematics competitions.

“My favorite subject is mathematics because of its inherent beauty.  Plus, the feeling that I get after I struggle and then finally, the jigsaw pieces snap together, and I solve a math problem, is unmatched in any other subject… Math is the best!” — Kavish Gandhi

Newton North HS junior Kavish Gandhi and his Lexington teammate, Noah Golowich, were the winning team in the Region Three Finals of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology this weekend at the University of Notre Dame.  Their team earned the $6,000 regional team scholarship and is now one of six teams invited to the National Finals in Washington, DC, on December 7-10, to compete for scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.

For this competition, Gandi and Golowich presented their research on Ramsey theory, which Gandhi described in the NNHS Newtonite as “‘focused on finding patterns and order in sufficiently large systems’ with applications in theoretical computer science, communications networks, cellular networks, positional board games, and molecular structures.”  They conducted their research through the MIT Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science, mentored by mathematics Ph.D. candidate Laszlo Miklos Lovasz. Continue reading NNHS Junior Kavish Gandhi Named National Finalist in Siemens Competition →

As reported in Village14.com, the Newton North High School Envirothon team, which won the state championship in May to represent Massachusetts across the continent, has since won Second Place overall in the North American Envirothon competition in Bozeman, Montana.  Sponsored by Canon U.S.A., the Envirothon is North America’s largest high school environmental education competition.  Congratulations to the team and advisor, and thanks to all who donated to support the team’s travel expenses.

Be sure to read what NNHS science teacher Anndy Dannenberg, the team’s faculty advisor, said of this accomplishment: Continue reading Newton North HS Wins Second in North American Envirothon →

Blue Lobster Bowl:  On March 3, Newton North sent three teams to the Blue Lobster Bowl, Massachusetts’ regional marine sciences quiz bowl at MIT.  The full-day competition covers chemistry, biology, engineering, history, ecology, climate change, and weather.  North’s A team placed 3rd of 16 teams, and its B team placed 7th.  The C team entered in a non-official bracket and placed 2nd.  Newton South’s team placed 8th.

West Suburban Science League:  Newton South’s Science Team placed first in the West Suburban Science League.  At one of the five West Suburban meets, the team tied its best single-meet score, with three first-place events and one second.  Newton North placed 4th with 302 points, its best score since 2007.

National Science Bowl:  Newton South’s team recently traveled to Connecticut and placed 5th of thirty-two at the regional event of the general science competition, the National Science Bowl.  Newton North’s team tied for 9th place.

Both the North HS and South HS Math Teams have qualified for the upcoming competition of the Massachusetts Association of Mathematics Leagues.  This required consistently high performance in the five monthly Greater Boston Mathematics League meets.  The North Math Team is currently ranked second in the Greater Boston Math League, and its A team won the last meet, in Canton.

At the Harvard-MIT November Tournament, a state-wide competition, North’s team placed 6^th and South’s team placed 10^th.  South’s team placed 2^nd in a high-stakes speed round at the end of the tournament.

Several members of both the North and South teams did well in the American Mathematics Competitions and will go on to compete at the state level.