Round Two of the Ulpaniada

This was an important morning for four of Frisch's brightest female math students. Abigail Katcoff '14, Jamie Lebovics '14,  Ronit Langer '15 and Rivka Zimm '17 took the second test in the three part Ulpaniada Math Contest run by Jerusalem College.  This round's exam consisted of two parts: twelve multiple choice questions and two open ended questions that required detailed proofs. Today's questions lived up to the exam's reputation of being extremely challenging and having little in common with any high school math test these students have taken before.  With these unique questions requiring creativity and the ability to abstract on a whole new level, it was an intense three hours as the pictures below show. These young women were up to the challenge and stayed incredibly focused for the entire duration of the test.

Rivka Zimm '17

Ronit Langer '15

We are hopeful that at least one of these bright math super stars will make it to the final round in Jerusalem. Regardless of the outcome of this morning test though, Frisch is proud of these four young woman. Even qualifying for the second round in such a rigorous and demanding competition is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Go Cougars!

The snow is gone and the results are finally in!!!!

 The snow is gone and the results are finally in!!!!!

In the first round of the Ulpaniada math competition run by Jerusalem College, about 140 educational institutions participated from Israel and abroad. Literally thousands of students rose to the challenge and competed and the math department at Frisch could not be prouder to announce that  Rivka Zimm, Ronit Langer, Abigail Katcoff, and Jamie Lebovics have all advanced to the next round. 

The second round will be held at Frisch shortly after winter vacation.  We look forward to sharing more good news as hopefully one or more of these bright young woman advance to the third and final round.

Mazel Tov You Calculating Cougars!!!!!!  

Round One of the 5774 International Ulpaniada Mathematics Contests

Round One of the 5774 International Ulpaniada Mathematics Contest

It is an exciting morning here at Frisch for the math department. Seven of our brightest female math students are currently taking round one of the Ulpaniada along with 8000 other young orthodox woman from around the world.

The Ulpaniada is a three round math contest run out of Michlalah-Jerusalem College.  Held every two years, the Ulpaniada's test questions are very different from those found on the SAT or any other math contest currently held in the US. It is a rigorous exam combining math and logic and Torah.  These Frisch students have to be creative and insight to even attempt to answer these 14 multiple choice nonstandard questions. Two questions in today's round one even require understanding the Hebrew calendar and numerical value of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet to be answered.  It is not everyday do these students see Hebrew in the middle of a math test!

With two past Frisch students qualifying for the final round held in Israel, we are optimistic that our current group of bright young Cougars have a fabulous chance of repeating history.

Calling all Female Math Students!!!!!!

It's time again for the Ulpaniadia and these are exciting times!

The Ulpaniadia is an amazing female only problem solving math contest run by Michlalah Jerusalem College.  Offered only every other year , the Ulpaniadia tests young orthodox women worldwide with challenging questions related to math and logic.

The math department at Frisch is looking for history to repeat itself. In March of 2012 Frisch students Aliza Hochsztein and Yael Fishel made it to the final round.  

To put this incredible accomplishment into perspective....Out of approximately 2000 girls worldwide, only 80 made it to the final round....that's the top 4%!!!  Since the final round was the same day as graduation, only Aliza traveled on to Israel for a four day trip of touring courtesy of Jerusalem College.  Then to top it all off, Aliza did so well in the final round that she made it into the top ten !!!!

The math department at Frisch is excited and optimistic that we will once again have some Cougars making some math waves ( maybe even sine or cosine waves) once again.

To learn more about the Ulpaniada:

 http://tinyurl.com/girlsmathcontest

Educreations is being used in 9th grade Geometry classes.

 Freshmen in my 9th grade Geometry class are using the iPad in a new and unexpected way.  Rabbi Pittinsky was able to give the students access to their textbooks in DropBox.  While it has become second nature for the kids at the start of class to prop open their iPads and open their textbooks via DropBox, I was surprised to see on a student's iPad screen a colorful  bar running across the top of the page.  My iPad screen didn't have that and for a minute I thought the student wasn't on task.  Little to I know then that they were more on task than I could have ever imagine. As I walked up and down the rows that day, I saw that the majority of my students also seemed to have this colorful bar of buttons superimposed on their textbook pages.  What I learned is that for some time many students were taking a picture of their textbook pages and were then opening the screen shot in Educreations. 

 Ecucreations, a recordable interactive whiteboard app, was pre-loaded on their school issued iPads but it was not something I had used or even introduced in class.  What was so exciting was that Educreations allowed the students to technically  "draw" on the textbook pages.  They could mark up the geometric figures as they chose in an attempt to better understand the given information.  I had of course been modeling this technique using colored markers on my whiteboard or the drawing tools of the Smartboard. While I am sure my markings help students understand the problems better, the ability to do it on their own is much more powerful.  They could trace the angles, mark what was congruent, and gain more than familiarity with the problem than simply watching me do it at the board.  As we advance through the curriculum I look forward to learning with them new and exciting ways the iPad can enhance the learning process. It is going to be a great year.

Frisch's Math Team

Frisch's Math Team (aka Math League aka Math Club) has had its first two meetings after school. The first meeting we had a team competition, always a student favorite. We split into two teams, working in separate rooms, each team working on eight challenging problems. The teams can work cooperatively, and can divide the eight problems among themselves any way they want to. At the end each team submits one final answer for each problem.

The team of juniors (plus Oriel) beat the team of seniors, sophs, and freshmen. At the second meeting we reviewed the problems from the previous meeting.

 We also looked at some old New Jersey Math League problems, because at the third meeting, we'll participate in the first NJML contest of the year. Our team participates in 6 NJML contests, one a month. In February, we'll participate in the American Math Contest. We've also participated in the biannual Yeshiva Math Bowl, and the trophy from last year's competition is sitting here at Frisch, after our team took first place honors.

As advisor, I'm especially excited this year because we have more freshman participants than usual. A good sign for the future. The students who have come back year after year get genuine pleasure from solving challenging, unconventional math problems. Special thanks to Senior Captains Abigail Katcoff, Jamie Lebovics, and Zachary Oster.

By David Greenfield
Math Teacher and Math Team Faculty Advisor

The day the iPads entered the room.....

Seamless transition...that is the phrase that comes to mind when I reflect on my 9th graders first math class with their iPads.  After receiving them just that morning and having a brief lesson on iPad, my freshmen were ready 5th period to rock and roll. Without me saying a word they all open the cases, propped them up, accept an invitation to DropBox and started working on the "Do Now".  Below is a picture of my Geometry class using their iPads to view some pages from their textbook.

 

The coolest part is that some students had already figured out how to import the pages into another app which allowed them then to draw on the pictures with different colors.  Great for my visual learners in the room.  I can't imagine a more smooth iPad launch and want to thank Rabbi Pittinsky and Chris Perez for all their collective effort to make this happen.