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 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)