18 minute read
8TH ANNUAL ARCADIA MATH CHALLENGE [PG
from May 2022
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By SABRINA LO
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Staff Writer
Arcadia High School’s Math Team hosted its 8th Annual Arcadia Math Challenge on April 15. Aside from serving as a fundraiser for the team, the challenge helped promote and provide a fun experience for non-math team members to compete in the subject.
Students were offered the opportunity to participate in individual rounds, a written test, and/or “bowl” rounds, which were essentially teams of up to 4 people competing against each other with buzzers. The price was $5 for individual, $3 for bowl, and $8 for both. Though the prices were relatively low, prizes to first prize participants in individual rounds included getting a guaranteed spot on Math Team!
There were four categories that students could compete in, according to their current math class. These included Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2/Algebra 2 Honors, Pre-Calculus/Pre-Calculus Honors, and Calculus. There were over a hundred signups. The first-place winners of each category respectively were 8th grader Kevin Wu, freshman Kevin Huang, sophomore Richard Cai, and junior Charles Pei.
Students heard about this competition from teachers, flyers, and Math Team members.
8th Annual Arcadia Math Challenge +
“I wanted to test my own math skills, and see if I had what it took to get into the Math Team,” said Wu.
“I felt that this was an opportunity to express my math skills and interest, and also my willingness to adapt to situations. I like math, plus it was an extra credit opportunity,” said Cai.
On each individual test, there were 20 questions and participants got an hour to do as many as they could.
While Wu and Cai both expressed that the questions were a bit more difficult than they expected, Huang and Pei both felt that the test was relatively easier than the American Math Competition.
“The questions were definitely easier than I expected. I was preparing for questions like those one would see on the American Math Competition (AMC),” said Pei.
Though these four won’t be able to join the competition in the upcoming year, they owe their great achievements to their teachers, parents, luck, and of course their own studying.
“I’m really excited about [being on the Math Team]. I hope that I can discuss difficult and interesting problems with people who really love math,” shared Chen.
For the bowl, participants Jessica Soehartono and Jianson Huang described the atmosphere and their thoughts. Both had three other teammates and expressed that they enjoy the buzzer-style competition more than traditional written tests.
“This way was different than a paperpencil traditional math test because those were more stressful…We only had 30 seconds to answer, [making] answering difficult as there were some parts where you had to do some tedious work,” said Soehartono. “Not being physically able to see the question is a challenge as mishearing a tiny part of the question means that your answer would be wrong… It was different because it requires quick thinking, and is more intense and fast-paced,” said Kevin Huang.
The event was considerably well organized, according to Math Team members.
“We had several volunteers making sure that everything was working smoothly,” said junior Henry Khine.
“As a first-time volunteer, I was astounded by the excitement and positive energy surrounding the entire event,” said sophomore Grace Khan.
Aside from all volunteers being on Math Team, questions on both the individual and bowl rounds were written by fellow Math Team officers.
“One month prior, all Math Team members submitted at least 2 problems for the competition. Officers…would pick the best of the submitted questions to be included,” said Senior Ruth Berkun, a captain of the team. “Finally, each officer checked another officer’s test to ensure quality and solvability.”
Math Team is advised by Mr. Nils Miller and Mr. Mauricio Eguez, and they meet weekly on Tuesdays in room G105. Members work on competitive math and prepare for upcoming competitions.
“My favorite part of being on Math Team is that I get to learn new types of math, like competition math,” said freshman Atharv Prabhutendolkar.
“Members increase the surface area of their brain while simultaneously destroying it!” mentioned senior Selena Zhang.
If Math Team sounds suitable for you and you want to try your shot at joining, tryouts will be held in the fall of next school year.
slo@arcadiaquill.com Photo courtesy of AHS Math Team
SANTA ANITA SAYS HELLO TO THE FAIR h
By KAI WETTERAU
Staff Writer Recently, a new attraction has been announced to open up at Santa Anita Park, letting visitors enjoy a day of fun starting Jul. 21. It’s been called the “State Fair,” no relationship with the official California State Fair though, held every year in Sacramento. The full fair is set to run until Aug. 20, with attendees being able to buy tickets online.
This event will host live bands and other forms of entertainment, including but not limited to delectable fried treats and traditional fair rides. Such an attraction almost always comes around to Arcadia, giving people something to do during the summer. It’s almost an annual tradition, following its loss in 2020 due to coronavirus. Past events have included such esteemed performances by Barefoot Nation and Led Zepagain, and this upcoming season will surely host more.
Tickets are needed to be bought for parking as well as for admission, though both can be purchased for reasonable costs ranging from $10 to $30. From there, visitors have the freedom to choose how much money they want to spend on food, and can go on rides for as long as they please with hours ranging from about 4 p.m. or 11 a.m. to midnight. As the fair is a mostly outdoor and nighttime experience, it’s important to dress appropriately and prepare for cooler weather.
Health guidelines for the safety of all attendees mainly incorporate whatever the CDC puts out, and further information that changes as time passes can be accessed on the fair’s website.
Other popular forms of entertainment present at this summer’s fair include a barbershop quartet and a dual-act of both comedy and juggling. The variety of such an event highlights the openness of the fair to all, meaning anyone from all ages or backgrounds can have a good time while attending the fair. Things as remote as motorcycle stunt shows are currently scheduled for showing, bringing in an even bigger demographic of people. Sophomore Brandon Lee really enjoys the thought of this; the variety of shows interests him.
“When I heard about the summer fair, I was ecstatic about what was to come! I especially enjoyed hearing about the motorcycle stunt show and the daring feats that demand attention!”
Traditional food will be available for purchase, such as funnel cakes and turkey legs; in conjunction with this, other foods friendly to dietary restrictions will be present, whether that be a salad or non-wheat products. Guests are able to enjoy their food while at one of two concerts per weekend, or while waiting in line for classic fair rides.
The fair closes its gates as of 11 p.m., meaning visitors have to act fast to get in late before the event is over. While in the last few hours of each day’s exhibit many things begin to close down, those at the fair can still look at and buy different items and products while at one of numerous vendor stands selling a great variety of things. Freshman Rohan Thakur explained what he wanted from these many shops, as some things sold here only come once a year.
“I really want to get something that shows summertime at the fair, as usually places never sell anything for the season. This includes towels, plushies, chairs, clothes, and more.”
The so-called “State Fair” is one event people shouldn’t miss; it’s a place for visitors to come for as many weeks as they want. It’s something that will make this year’s summer much more enjoyable and busy, and can serve as fun for everyone attending.
Final Exams Don’t Help Students
By KIRA CAMACHO
Staff Writer
Arguably one of the most stressful things about being a student is tests and exams. From quizzes to AP exams in May, tests put unnecessary stress on students. On top of hours of homework, there are always hours of studying to pile on after. But, the most stressful of all exams are finals. At the end of the year, we’re expected to recall everything we’ve learned in each academic class and be able to take a test on it. In my opinion, final exams don’t actually help students.
Final exams are meant to test students on what they’ve learned over the year, but they can’t possibly measure students’ learning. Many, many people are subject to test anxiety. Before, during, or while testing, these people feel extreme pressure to do well. When feeling this type of anxiety and stress during a test, your answers may not accurately portray your knowledge. Stress and anxiety exhausts your brain, draining your ability to focus, concentrate, and recall information. These three things are crucial during tests. When feeling test anxiety, your score won’t be an accurate representation of your learning. Test anxiety only increases during finals, as these multifaceted tests usually count for a big chunk of your final grade. No matter what you did that year, the final will determine your grade. Due to stress and test anxiety, finals (which are meant to measure students’ learning throughout the semester) do not yield accurate results.
The entire education system revolves around tests. You learn something, practice it, memorize it, and then test on it. In almost all of the academic classes I’ve taken, this was the pattern, and it has been the pattern for a very long time. But studies in neuroeducation and cognitive psychology are now proving that memorization isn’t the actual key to learning. “Learning means that information is related and connected to the learner. If it’s not, you have memorization, but you don’t have learning,”wrote Sara Briggs. “Standardized tests rely on memorization, but they do not necessarily reflect (or measure) learning.” It’s scientifically proven that standardized tests do not reflect learning, so why do we still take finals? They’re the ultimate test, forcing us to prove what we’ve learned over the semester. Plus, they don’t help students. In a rush to memorize and cram information, many students won’t actually think about the information they need for finals. Instead of learning the information long-term, students will quickly forget it. “Your memory is a product of what you think most carefully about,” said David Willingham, a cognitive scientist. “What students think about most carefully is what they will remember.”
So, finals and tests in general are pretty much useless. But what’s the solution? Projects. Many teachers already offer project finals instead of traditional test-finals. Projects let you actually use the information you’ve learned to complete a task. This careful thinking during a project will increase your chance of memorizing the information for longer. Plus, much (if not all) of the stress of a test is relieved, and students can focus more on learning than grades.
Unfortunately, finals probably won’t be going away very soon, if ever. As I mentioned, education still relies on a pattern of memorization and testing. Though many classes and programs break the mold to include more hands-on learning, testing continues to be the default. Even though we still have to go through finals, hopefully those pieces of information from Willingham and Briggs will help you kcamacho@arcadiaquill. Graphic courtesy of SUBPNG.COM
Ruling Out “Majority Rules”
By MICHELLE SO
Campus Focus Editor
You and a group of friends are trying to decide where to go for lunch. The group has been stuck on the decision for 15 minutes already, with no result. Perhaps one of the most common ways to pick is to do a vote, or in other words, go with “majority rules.” It’s In-N-Out with 5 votes to McDonald’s with 2, so In-N-Out will end up being the restaurant chosen. This seemingly effective method of choosing actually presents harmful consequences, especially when dealing with cases more serious than picking where to eat.
The “majority rule” method is most commonly referred to through its role in the Supreme Court. In a majority rule system, the option which earns more than 50% of the votes wins. One reason this may be harmful is that it undermines the voice of the minority. Although there are certain rules to try to prevent the minority from being disregarded or stripped from their rights in United States Laws, such a system in other countries may result in larger issues.
“Majority rule is a way of choosing, while democracy is a system that ensures that the government is responsive both to majorities and to individuals,” said Professor Michael Munger in this video.
For example, a country that is ruled by a so-called democracy may have wealthy and elite government officials, while 70% of the country is composed of poor workers. Such majority rulemaking decisions would not be beneficial to the country, as the government is solely focused on itself.
To make it simpler, let’s bring it back to daily-life scenarios. Having majority rule become a habitual way of decision-making may lead the minority to hide their feelings. Take a group of elementary schoolers – those who have a lesser-favored opinion may feel the pressures of keeping away their true thoughts, such as “go with the flow”.
Some may argue that when decisions are to be made quickly, majority rule is the most logical and quick way to come to an agreement. This is true, to some extent. Majority rule can be a great system, but any abuse of majority privilege will reverse all benefits. When the majority always gets what they want, they start to believe that their beliefs must be what is correct.
It’s hard to completely erase majority rule from the society, especially as it is already so deeply implemented in many places. However, the emphasis should be placed on how to ‘use’ it safely. Perhaps, next time a group of classmates wants to decide on which ice cream to buy for the class party, listen to everyone’s rationales before coming to a resolution. Sometimes it is the minority who have valuable ideas; they just need to be heard.
By SABRINA LO
Staff Writer
If you’re caught up with Olympic Women’s Figure Skating, you may have noticed that, recently, a lot of the medalists come from Russia, under the same coach: Eteri Tutberidze. Her career began in 2014, when Tutberidze coached Yulia Lipnitskaya, a 15-year-old figure skater competing in the Olympics. Lipnitskaya performed almost perfectly at the Sochi Games, calling attention to her and Tutberidze. Ever since, Tutberidze became famous for coaching Russian girls who excelled and dominated at the Olympics.
However, as her fame continued, fans began to notice a concerning pattern in Tutberidze’s girls. Each of them began retiring early, around the age of 17, with severe injuries: a byproduct that isn’t worth the short-lived excellence.
For example, let’s look at Evgenia Medvedeva, one of the world’s most famous figure skaters. Coached by Tutberidze, Medvedeva won every major competition in 2016 and 2017, and she was consequently the favorite to win the 2018 Olympics. But when Medvedeva turned 18, she began to fall in her routines, and her 15-year-old teammate— Alina Zagitova—took the spotlight. In the 2018 Olympics, Zagitova ended up winning gold, and Medvedeva earned silver.
This pattern continued with Zagitova, and fans began to connect each of the girls’ experiences. Yulia Lipnitskaya retired at the age of 19 and suffered from hip injuries and anorexia afterward. Evgenia Medvedeva retired at 22 with a chronic back injury that prohibited her from turning to her left. Alina Zagitova peaked at 15 and took her hiatus at 17, the age that fans have dubbed the “Eteri expiration date.”
Clearly, Tutberidze’s methods have an evident lack of sustainability. Although she’s revolutionized figure skating, figure skaters are permanently breaking their bodies to fleetingly dominate a sport. Historically, this isn’t normal: other renowned skaters didn’t retire so young, nor did they retain the same injuries in such short amounts of time. For example, Michelle Kwan, a former American figure skater, retired at 41. So what sets Tutberidze’s coaching methods apart from everyone else’s?
In short, Tutberidze’s tactics revolve around body weight. Typically, to perform triple jumps and quadruple jumps, a figure skater needs a lot of muscle and strength. Before 2018, quadruple jumps in women’s figure skating were practically unheard of. However, Tutberidze found that, instead of relying on muscle, it’s possible to instead utilize a low body weight and a prepubescent body.
Teenage girls happen to have the ideal body type for performing quadruple jumps, as lighter, leaner skaters have an advantage in getting up in the air and spinning faster. Puberty, on the other hand, tends to add more weight, height, and fat to a woman’s body, therefore hindering a woman’s ability to perform difficult jumps. Under Tutberidze’s guidance, her skaters worked to prolong their skating career by delaying puberty—or, in other words, by not eating. Former Tutberidze girls spoke out about their experience under her coaching, claiming her methods have led to injury, bulimia, and anorexia. During the 2014 Olympics, Lipnitskaya had a diet of solely powdered substances. Furthermore, during the 2018 Olympics, Medvedeva and Zagitova were forbidden from drinking water throughout the competition, out of fear of swelling and excessive weight. In an interview, Zagitova explained how they could only rinse their mouths with water and spit it out afterward. Along with these damaging practices, Tutberidze girls have described daily weigh-ins, collapsing in pain after skating, inhaling smelling salts to keep from fainting, and retaining injuries from overtraining.
Rafael Arutyunyan, the coach of Olympic gold medalist Nathan Chen, criticized Tutberidze’s unsustainable coaching methods.
“I don’t really like drinking coffee from disposable cups,” said Arutyunyan. “Similarly, I don’t like onetime champions.”
Assuming that Tutberidze’s coaching stays the same, the cycle of “expiration dates” will likely continue with her next girls, who will fall victim to the same consequences their predecessors faced.
Tutberidze, and other coaches like her, undeniably deliver remarkable results, but the cost is overwhelming. Their abusive methods ruin and discard children’s bodies for a medal, and as shown by Medvedeva, the consequences of this kind of skating will follow them their entire lives. These girls should not be taken advantage of or viewed as disposable; this pattern of abuse in figure skating needs to end.
Why Single-Sex Schools can be Beneficial
By ANNA ODELL
Staff Writer
A lot of people believe that singlesex schools are beneficial for a few reasons: fewer distractions, improved student achievement, and a tailored curriculum. These are very good reasons as to why they are better than co-ed schools. But it is more than just limited distractions. In fact, the way men and women function in school is so different from each other that separating them can benefit both sexes.
In my opinion, teenage girls and guys have a tendency to want to impress one another. This can get in the way of paying attention in class, and it can consume valuable time outside of school. Most students are naturally competitive, but this can be detrimental if the objective is the attention of the opposite sex. For example, it can cause a fixation on appearances and lack of self-esteem. So why not eliminate this stress and need to impress?
To back up my statement supporting single schools, ThoughtCo said, “When students are among peers that are physically similar to them, they do not feel as if they have to prove something about their biological sex.”
Obviously there are exceptions, including people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community or naturally competitive people for whom the need to impress or outshine other members of their own sex remains unabated even in a singlesex school. How -
ever, for most teenagers single-sex schools can be less stressful and less competitive.
Personally, I think that if I was at an all-girls school, I would not only be a lot less stressed, but also I would be more confident. I have noticed that the boys in my classes tend to raise their hands more than the girls. When I researched this, I found out that men are more likely to raise their hands even if they don’t know the answer because of their competitive nature. Girls, o n the other hand, will typically only raise their hand when they know the answer, and they are confident that it is correct.
“Studies have shown that men are more likely than women to project confidence when they’re uncertain, and that women are particularly hesitant,” stated Huffpost.
Girls tend to be intimidated by overlyconfident, loud, and assertive boys. During school, I tend to be more shy when raising my hand as I am fearful of saying the wrong answer. If I weren’t in the presence of boys who are more confident than I, I would be more inclined to raise my hand and step up to leadership roles. This is because there would be less competition between me and them.
In addition, compared to co-ed schools, those in single-sex schools perform better, and there are statistics to back this up. Our Kids the Trusted Source explained that girls in single-sex schools performed better on the SATs compared to girls who attend co-ed schools.
In conclusion, single-sex schools have many benefits, and in some personal cases, they are better than co-ed schools. They offer a more relaxed environment because students will feel more comfortable with their peers and perform better, and there is less competition for the attention of the opposite sex. Single-sex schools should not be overlooked when determining what school a person should attend.
aodell@arcadiaquill.com Graphic courtesy of PINCLIPART.COM and SEEKPNG.COM