Huntington Duo Selected by Prestigious Institute
Woodhull Intermediate School sixth graders Haley Mortell and Hadley Clayton have been selected for participation in the Saturday morning program of The Institute for Creative Problem Solving for Gifted and Talented Students. The sessions are held on the campus of SUNY College at Old Westbury.
The Institute was established to improve the problem solving skills of a select group of 75 high ability students in grades 5 -10 on Long Island. It chooses 25 students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties to participate in each of the three sections (out of approximately 1,000 students from all of Long Island).
Maryann Daly, the Huntington School District's SEARCH chairperson and a teacher in the program nominated more than two dozen of her Math Olympiad students to take the Institute's "rigorous" qualifying exam.
Ms. Mortell and Ms. Clayton are currently attending a series of 20 Saturday classes on the Old Westbury campus. A group of distinguished professors from a variety of institutions is working with the students.
The Huntington pair will study creative problem solving in the areas of math, engineering and science and be required to devote 60 hours to formal classes over the course of the morning classes. Participants are also expected to spend another 60 hours working on related projects at home.
Mrs. Daly called the selection of the two Huntington sixth graders "a huge honor, which you can see as you read how competitive it is and how difficult it is to qualify." Each participant who completes the Institute's program will officially be designated as a "Long Island Young Scholar of Mathematics" and be awarded a certificate of accomplishment.
The two Huntington scholars will study problem-solving, number theory, divisibility theorems, number patterns, geometry, probability, astronomy, density, mathematics in nature, forces in action, triangulation with scale drawings and logic matrix puzzles.
"Participants develop their ability to use a variety of problem-solving skills and strategies; increase their interest and enthusiasm for problem-solving in mathematics; sharpen their mathematical intuition; acquaint themselves with interesting and important mathematical ideas; and experience the fun, satisfaction, and thrill of discovery associated with creative problem solving," according to a description posted on the program's website.