Savage Middle Schoolers awarded for math savvy

Some kids love to run. Some get that deep breath of freedom through art. But for eighth-grader Nicholas Panyanouvong, math is the path for his mental stretch.

“What’s great about math is there’s so many different ways to come to a solution – but there’s only one solution. It’s not like English, where there’s so many ways to interpret something. It’s just so clean-cut,” said Nicholas, one of six Savage Middle School students honored for their math acumen.

The students joined more than 120,000 youths worldwide competing in the Mathematical Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School Students. At the end of five monthly contests, Nicholas placed in the top 10 percent; Karen Nguyen was in the top 20 percent; Andrew Nguyen, top 25 percent; Izzak Cardenas, top 40 percent; and Isabella Yermolov and Shawna Reyes in the top 50 percent.

Math teacher Pamela Mayne led weekly practice sessions for interested students at Savage, part of the Sylvan Union School District in north Modesto.

“The students learned to solve unusual and difficult problems and to think creatively,” Mayne said. A small, dedicated group stuck with the math challenge, coming in during lunch or after school for the weekly mental workouts.

April’s sample problem was to find the perimeter of a triangle. But instead of giving the length of sides A, B and C, it gave the lengths for A+B, B+C and C+A: 20, 23, and 27. (The answer is 35)

“Most students competing in this event are the top math students from their school so they really are the best of the best internationally,” Mayne said.

For Nicholas, math, music and science are the fun stuff.

“Even on the band trip to Disneyland, I’d look at a ride and I’d have this idea of how they could do it better,” he said with a grin.

Career plans? Maybe engineering, but he hasn’t decided, Nicholas said.

“The sky’s the limit,” he added.

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Savage Middle Schoolers awarded for math savvy."