Grauer Teams Compete in High School Mathematical Modeling Contest

From Peter Mannisto, Mathematics Teacher and Mathematical Modeling Advisor:

From November 9-19, The Grauer School participated in the High School Mathematical Contest (HiMCM) in Modeling for the third year in a row. This competition challenges high school teams worldwide to solve a problem of both real-world and mathematical interest (they have a choice of 2 problems, and only need to solve one), and submit their solution to a panel of judges. For the second year in a row, The Grauer School had 2 teams enter this competition - Yay for math at The Grauer School! Both teams chose to solve a problem which is of great interest at our school and around the nation: what are the economic and environmental benefits and costs to banning plastic water bottles? Both teams had to analyze two current bans in place in Concord, Massachusetts and San Francisco International Airport, and create a mathematical model from these data points to predict the future environmental and economic impacts that any other city would have if they undertook such a ban. A very interesting problem!

A further exciting fact is that all of the participants this year were underclassmen - so we are all set to enter experienced, knowledgeable teams next year!! One team consisting of four 11th grade students: Erik H. '21, Kevin M. '21, Gabriel S. '21, and Jason W. '21.   Our other team consisted of two 11th graders and two 10th graders: Amanda C. '21, Ava I. '21, Joshua B. '22, and Lourdes F. '22. Both teams put in 2 full days of work during school hours, together with a huge chunk of time outside of school hours, to analyze the problem in detail and write up their conclusions. Please congratulate all of the participants for their hard work and a job well done!!