Kangaroo and Pangea Competitions: Honors for Young Math Champions

On Kangaroo Day, the third Thursday in March, more than 6 million children and teenagers from over 70 countries around the world took part in the Kangaroo Math Competition, including more than 910,000 in Germany. At Steinmühle, 73 students took part in this voluntary test, mainly from grades 5, 6, and 7. The Kangaroo problems can usually be solved using a variety of different approaches, and ultimately, students just have to choose the correct answer from five options. This suits the students very well. All participants received a certificate, a small game, and the Kangaroo booklet containing all the problems and solutions.

In each grade level, first, second, and third prizes are awarded to the top 5 percent of participants nationwide; these prizes include science kits, strategy games, math puzzles, and books. This year, Steinmühle had six prize winners: Paula Auschill (7a) and Ellen Hilt (7b) received third prizes, while Nela Haeberle (6c), Livia Schulze (5a), and Thorben Heß (5c) won second prizes. Mathilda Lambach (5b) not only won a first prize but also a Kangaroo T-shirt for the longest “kangaroo jump” (= the greatest number of consecutive correct answers). Congratulations!

The students in the kangaroo photo:

From left: Teacher Gisela Opper, Nela Haeberle, Mathilda Lambach, Paula Auschill, Ellen Hilt, Thorben Heß. Livia Schulze is missing.

 

Jan Audretsch in the Hesse Final

Thirteen students from our school qualified for the intermediate round of the Pangea Competition. Of these, Jan Audretsch was the only one to advance to the regional finals in Frankfurt. He is thus among the top 10 students in the region comprising “Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and German schools abroad.” Jan answered 11 of the 12 questions correctly.

The final will take place on June 16—unfortunately, he will also be competing that day in the National Math Olympiad in Würzburg as part of the Hessian team, so he will likely be unable to participate in this final round at all. We congratulate him on so much success!

 

The students in the Pangea photo:

Back row, from left: Aliena Eutebach (7a), Nikolas Becker (7b), Finn-Jonas Posingies (7b), Max Badouin (7b), Lukas Trapp (8b), Clemens Gerhardt (8b), Nelly Endres (10c), teacher Constanze Oestreicher-Gold.

Front row, from left: Arvid Mayer (6c), Flora Endres (5c), Paula Hartmann (5c), Thorben Heß (5c).

Absent: Jan Audretsch (8b) and Paul Anton Schmölz (8c).