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 increase the young talents who are, definitely, the most valuable resource of our country.

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.

We are glad to inform that after the last report (May, 2015), five more centers (Caaguazú, Alto Paraná, Itapúa, Paraguarí and Guairá) were established along the country thanks to the support of our donors and Itaipú Binacional. We finally managed to open all centers during last June (the other ones already open were Asunción, Itapúa, Misiones and Ñeembucú). Please notice in the map (attached figure), highlighted in green, the locations where the courses are available. The good news is that 196 students are participating in the Young Talent’s Courses.

The modules and their topics in these courses are:

1) Beginner Level

Modules:

• Algebra I
• Geometry I
• Introduction to Number Theory

2) Intermediate Level

Modules:

• Algebra II
• Geometry II
• Number Theory II
•  

3) Upper Intermediate Level

Modules:

• Number Theory III
• Inequalities
• Functions
• Concurrency and Collinearity

4) Advanced Level

Modules:

• Specific topics on advanced Geometry
• Combinatorics
• Geometry III
• Number Theory IV

These courses are especially designed to increase the talent for problem solving by 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.

In addition, the courses’ contents are a support for the training of our students who compete in Mathematical Olympiads. During this year, the results obtained for our national teams formed by Young Talents were amazing. In the Cono Sur Mathematical Olympiad, two students got Bronze Medals, and in the most important math competition in the world, the International Mathematical Olympiad, three of our students got also Bronze Medal. 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=330&Itemid=1

Please note that the funds needed to implement the Young Talents’ Project are provided together by: OMAPA, donors from GlobalGiving and ITAIPU Binacional. For these reason, the donations are extremely useful for achieve our goals. We hope to keep receiving the support of our donors, to whom we thank for their help.

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 - Global Giving, 6th Report (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 empower the young talents who are, with no doubts, the most valuable resource of our country.

The long-term impact intended with the program, besides of the one that every student can achieve by his own, is the continuous training of Paraguayan professionals in science and technology, which will be the engine for the social and economic development of Paraguay.

We are glad to inform that the Summer Intensive Course for Young Talents was held from February 2nd to 6th, 2015, for 40 hours during the week. For this course were invited all the finalists from the National Mathematical Olympiad 2014, and 104 students from all over the country took part in it.

In this opportunity the Summer Intensive Courses were developed only in Asunción and not in the centers of the countryside, due to lack of funds. The courses were conducted in four different levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced Levels.

The modules and levels that were developed were:

1) Beginner Level (51 students)

Topics:

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

2) Intermediate Level (33 students)

Topics:

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

 3) Upper Intermediate Level (13 students)

Topics:

• Diophantine equation
• Boards and games problem solving techniques

4) Advanced Level (7 students)

Topics:

• Geometry

o   Euler's Method, Simpson's Rule

o   Lifting The Exponent Lemma

o   Translation and Rotational symmetry

The annual courses started in March, 2015. At first, only one center was stablished in Asunción, covering three levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. One month later was introduced beginners level in three more centers, Concepción, Misiones and Ñeembucu.

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

Please notice that for the execution of these activities, OMAPA provided its own funds together with the donations of our donors from Globalgiving collected by April 2015. 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 donations.

Finally, we have a remarkable notice for our donors and we are proud to share with them. This year, four students that have participated in the program “Scientific initiation with emphasis in mathematics for young talents” during the last years applied for undergraduate programs in the United States, and all of them were accepted with full scholarship in some of the best Universities in the world, as MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), UTB (University of Texas at Brownsville), Pittsburg State University and Swarthmore College. This notice also has been highlighted by two of the more important newspapers of Paraguay:

http://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/locales/olimpico-de-omapa-logra-plaza-en-el-mit-1355665.html

http://www.lanacion.com.py/2015/04/15/paraguayos-van-a-importantes-universidades-en-los-eeuu/

• Newspaper1.pdf (PDF)
  
• Newspaper2.pdf (PDF)
  
• Report - May 2015 (PDF)