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.

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 (April 2017), the annual courses continued with good results. 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.

The activities were developed in Asunción and other 8 cities around the country. At the capital (Asuncion), students attended for one of different three levels: Math Laboratory, early advanced and advanced, and in the other cities the courses were developed only in the Math Laboratory level. The Math Laboratory course was introduced in 2016 in our academic program. This year, its emphasys is on Geometry topics.

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.

In addition, the courses’ contents are a support for the training of our students who compete in Mathematical Olympiads. Last July, two students won Honourable Mention in the International Mathematica Olympiad in Brazil, and a student won a Bronze Medal in the Cono Sur Mathematical Olympiad, which was held in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Then, another benefit of these activities is the improvement of our results in international competitions.

Donors can find more information at:

 http://www.omapa.org/paraguay-logra-medalla-de-bronce-en-la-olimpiada-matematica-del-cono-sur-2017/

 http://www.omapa.org/dos-menciones-de-honor-para-paraguay-en-la-imo-2017/

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

• 7_OMAPA__GlobalGiving_Report_August_2017.pdf (PDF)