Welcome to the BEAM Blog!

Fundraisers, Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol Fundraisers, Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol

Annual Slightly Mathy Trivia Night!

Each year, BEAM supporters, students, and staff get together for a night of slightly mathy-trivia, upscale pizza, beer, wine, and fun!  

Our volunteer trivia host, Andy, designed a night of quirky and challenging questions!  Here's a sample question from each round: (answers at the bottom of the post!)

  • Round 1 was a potpourri of challenging questions.  Here's a mathy one: "What is the smallest possible value for |a - b|, if a + b = 2017, a only contains even digits, and b only contains odd digits?"
  • Round 2 featured a matching game.  Given a single sentence about a game in one of 20 languages, can you figure out which language you're reading and what sport is being described?  Here's an example: "In what game does one of the rules translate to 'Carduri trainer reprezintă Articole, Suporterii și Stadioane de un Antrenor poate utiliza în luptă'?"
  • Round 3 was all NYC, with questions about the boroughs, high schools, bridges, and more about our city. For example,  "Which high school, which is one of the westernmost schools in Manhattan, is named after a former director-general of New Netherland?"

Teams, comprised of a mix of students, staff, and supporters worked together and got to know each other over the course of 36 challenging questions! 

Between Rounds 2 and 3, we took a break to ask all the students present about their experiences with BEAM.  The 8th-12th graders answered serious questions, and joked around, about math, high school, college, and more. 

Couldn't make it this year?  Sign up for BEAM's mailing list in the footer of this page to here when ticket sales start for next year.  Our staff and students can't wait to meet you!

Curious? Here are the answers:

  • 245 (a=886 and b=1131)
  • Pokémon (the language is Romanian)
  • Stuyvesant (where one BEAM student is in 10th grade!)
Read More
Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol

An Evening of Dinner and Board Games

Every winter, BEAM brings together program supporters and students for an evening of dinner and board games.  An elegant board games party?  Yes, you heard that right!

Playing Swish

This winter, we saw folks playing Swish, chess, Ricochet Robots, Blokus, Apples to Apples, and Set. 

Playing Set

Over games and dinner, the adults got to hear just what it was like for students to participate in BEAM. After dinner, a panel of students answered questions from the audience about their experiences at BEAM, in high school, at other programs, and their goals for the future. 

Malachi answers

It was a lovely event.  We hope you can join us next year!

Read More
Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol Supporter Events Daniel Zaharopol

Trivia Night with Supporters, Students, and Staff

BEAM's first annual math trivia night was a hit with supporters, students, and staff. 

On Tuesday, December 1, BEAM supporters, students, and staff joined together for a night of math trivia, fancy pizza, and fun, supporting BEAM's 2016 program.  

BEAM guests and students at trivia night

After a dinner of pizza, pasta, salad, and meatballs, guests joined teams (each a mix of adults and students) to answer questions about some of BEAM's favorite topics: math, of course, but also sports, board games, pop music, and more!  

Trivia team hard at work

After four rounds of trivia, the top three teams were invited to the Countdown Round. 

Countdown Round

With two correct answers provided by Rashik, (Mercury and Venus don't have moons; Colorado is one of two states with perfectly rectangular borders), the winning team was "Yay, Winners!"  It turns out that was a great choice of team name. 

Yay, Winners! celebrates their trivia win

Thanks to everyone for making the event such a great night, including our trivia hosts, Big Quiz Thing, and the venue, Gran Morsi. We will be back next year for another wonderful night; if you missed it this time, join our mailing list to hear about the next event!

Read More