Scientific initiation for 120 students in Paraguay

Thanks to the support of our donors from GlobalGiving to the Project of “Scientific Initiation for 120 students in Paraguay”, who contributed with a part of the funds needed for our activities. This program aims to empower the talent for problem solving of young students with mathematical skills, and thus enable them to achieve a higher level than the one they achieve through the educational system in our country.

It is the first and only program with these features in the country, has a national scope and proven international effectiveness and has been conducted continuously since 1989. It consists of three main steps:

1) Detection and motivation through National Mathematical Olympiads;

2) Academic and Scientific Training;

3) Incentive to Excellence.

The long-term impact intended with the program, is the continuous training of Paraguayan professionals in science and technology, which will be the engine for the social and economic development of Paraguay.

After the last report (March 2016), the annual courses started in 9 cities around Paraguay. This year an innovation called “Math Laboratory” has been introduced. This innovation in the program proposes a different curriculum covering the traditional content of the initial and intermediate levels and incorporate methodologies for solving problems according to the latest knowledge of Mathematics Education level international.

 During the classes, different types of problems are presented to the students:

- Motivational problems, that are chosen to motivate students in the issue of solving math Olympiad problems.

- Challenge Problems: those that need some theoretical tools that often they don’t have. With the instructors’ experience those new concepts are presented and developed through these well-developed problems.

- Additional problems: usually outside the main theme, that promotes interaction between the instructor and students. They are accompanied by different types of materials, such as: cards, balls, etc. It will be a more playful and open problem.

During the last three months 261 students attended to the program. It should be noticed that 137 students from public schools had a complete scholarship from ITAIPU Binacional (OMAPA´s Major Donor). Funds from GlobalGiving donors were used to give some partial scholarships to students from private schools, allowing their attending to courses. These donations are extremely useful and really help us to achieve our goals.We hope to keep receiving the support of our donors, to whom we thank for their support.

In addition, the courses’ contents are a support for the training of our students who compete in Mathematical Olympiads. Last May, the Cono Sur Mathematical Olympiad was held in Argentina, where one student got Bronze Medal, and another one an Honorable Mention. Then, another benefit of these activities is the improvement of our results in international competitions.

For more information please take a look at: http://www.omapa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=364&Itemid=1

We encourage our donors to follow our activities through the organization web page:

http://www.omapa.org.py/

as well as the social networks:

Twitter : @OMAPApy

Facebook: https://es-la.facebook.com/omapa.org.py

• OMAPA__GlobalGiving_Report_June_2016.pdf (PDF)
  

Thanks to the support of our donors from GlobalGiving to the Project of “Scientific Initiation for 120 students in Paraguay”, who contributed with a part of the funds needed for our activities. This program aims to increase the young talents who are, definitely, the most valuable resource of our country.

It is the first and only program with these features in the country, has a national scope and proven international effectiveness and has been conducted continuously since 1989. It consists of three main steps:

1) Detection and motivation through National Mathematical Olympiads;

2) Academic and Scientific Training;

3) Incentive to Excellence.

 The long-term impact intended with the program, is the continuous training of Paraguayan professionals in science and technology, which will be the engine for the social and economic development of Paraguay.

 After the last report (November 2015), the Summer Intensive Courses for Young Talents was held from December 14^th to 18^th, 2015 and from February 1nd to 5th, 2016. Each course was developed for 40 hours (completing 80 hours in the summer) in 4 levels according to the students' knowledge. The activities were developed in 9 cities around Paraguay. At the capital (Asuncion), students attended for one of different four levels: beginner, intermediate, early advanced and advanced, and in the other cities the courses were developed only in the initial level.

 The themes developed in the courses were:

1) Beginner Level

Topics:

• Strategies for Problem Solving (Second module)
• Basic Geometry

2) Intermediate Level

Topics:

• Algebra: Factoring Polynomials, remarkable products
• Mathematical proof methods

3) Upper Intermediate Level

Topics:

• Diophantine equation
• Boards and games problem solving techniques

4) Advanced Level

Topics:

• Geometry
• Euler's Method, Simpson's Rule
• Lifting The Exponent Lemma
• Translation and Rotational symmetry

For this summer activities, almost 450 people were invited (those who participated in the final stage of the National Mathematical Olympiad).

During December, 246 students attended to the courses. It should be noticed that 165 students from public schools had a complete scholarship from ITAIPU Binacional (OMAPA´s Major Donor). Funds from GlobalGiving donors were used to give some partial scholarships to students from private schools, allowing their attending to courses.

From February 1^st to 5^th, 2016, the second summer course was developed. 189 students attended to these courses, and, 123 were received full scolarships from Itaipu Binacional. Again, GlobalGiving donors’ funds were used to give partial scholarships to some of the remaining students.

These courses are especially designed for increase the talent for problem solving of young students with mathematical skills, and thus enable them to achieve a higher level than the one they could reach through the educational system in our country.

 Some pictures from these activities are shown in the following pages of this report.

 Please notice that for the execution of these activities, OMAPA provided its own funds together with the donations of Itaipu Binacional, Conacyt and GlobalGiving. These donations are extremely useful and really help us to achieve our goals. We hope to keep receiving the support of our donors, to whom we thank for their support.

We encourage our donors to follow our activities through the organization web page:

http://www.omapa.org.py/

as well as the social networks:

Twitter : @OMAPApy

Facebook: https://es-la.facebook.com/omapa.org.py

• OMAPA__GlobalGiving_Report_mar_2016.pdf (PDF)