Matching Campaign Success

BEAM is pleased to announce that we have met our Matching Campaign goal! With all the online donations and checks in the mail, we can officially announce that we made the goal. Our Board increased their donations $175,000 to match $175,000 in new or increased contributions. 

Thanks to all supporters, for enabling us to provide another year of free programs to students in NYC.

AMC 8 Results

As you may recall, students took the AMC 8 contest back in November, and we wanted to report on how they did!

The AMC 8 is a 25 question contest, and it's quite challenging.  This year, 149,277 students nationwide took the contest.  The median (middle) student scored 8 -- less than a third of the questions answered correctly!  To score in the top 25% percentile, students had to score at least 11.  Only 90 students across the world got a perfect score. 

Of the 12 students who took the contest, 9 scored above 8 questions correct, putting them above the nationwide average.  Good work, everyone!  We are particularly impressed by Ahmed, whose score of 13 puts him the top quartile nationwide. BEAM is sure this a sign of future success yet to come.  

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!

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

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

Winter Party

With all of our important academic events, it's great to also make time for BEAM students to come together and just hang out!  Every December and June, BEAM hosts a party for students in grades 8-12 to get together with their friends, eat, and play games. 

It was wonderful to see old friends and new get together!  Enjoy some photos of students and staff having a great time together:

Saturday Office Hours

Every Thursday and one weekend a month, BEAM hosts "Office Hours".  Just as in college, students can bring anything they're working on and receive help or advice from staff and volunteers. 

Here's a list of things we worked on this weekend at Office Hours:

• Ayinde helped students prepare to take the SCAT next weekend, the first step to attending summer programs at the Center for Talented Youth (CTY)
• Amy helped Jahleel with Algebra 1
• Lynn helped Veronica with 8th grade math homework
• Ryan helped DeVaune with Geometry
• Dan led the monthly Math Team meeting, with the 8th graders preparing for MATHCOUNTS

Students also had time to take a break and eat a snack with friends. 

By the time BEAM students get to college, they will be in the habit of seeking out help as needed!

Trivia Night 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.  

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!  

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

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!

BEAM Students Participate in the AMC 8

On Tuesday, November 18, BEAM students (and thousands of 8th graders across the country) participated in the AMC 8.  Taken by the strongest 8th grade mathematicians nationwide, the AMC 8 is both challenging and fun.

The AMC 8 is 25 multiple-choice questions, administered over 40 minutes. When the contest ended, students got to request solutions to the problems they didn't understand, making sure that the day was a learning opportunity as well!  Most of the solutions were presented by Lynn, our Director of Programs, but Ezelle (an 8th grader) practically jumped out of her seat when it was time to discuss problem #18. Here's the problem she was so excited to solve:

Here's how Ezelle solved it:

• You know the top row has to grow 24 over 4 terms, so each number must be 6 more than the prior number.  That gives you 1, 7, 13, 19, 25.
• You know the bottom row has to grow by 64 over 4 terms, so each number must be 16 more than the prior number.  That gives you 17, 33, 49, 65, 81.
• Now, to get to X, you only have solve the middle column. 
• You know the middle column has to grow from 13 to 49, which is 36 over 4 terms, so each number must be 9 more than the number above.  That gives you 13, 22, 31, 40, 49.
• X is in the middle square of the middle column, so X must be 31.

When asked how she figured it out, Ezelle credited a favorite class from last summer, Cory's class titled "Integer Sequences", for teaching her how to think about sequences and series. Nice work, Ezelle! (And a hat tip to Cory, as well!)

Ezelle with her finished work. 

You can find the full list of 2015 questions and solutions here. We promise more updates when we get students results back!

BEAM Featured in Chalkbeat New York

Chalkbeat New York traveled to Bard College last July to see classes, and then joined BEAM for our trip to Yale Splash.  The result is a wonderful profile of our program.  Click through to Chalkbeat to read the full story. 

BEAM Goes to Yale Splash

Every fall, BEAM heads to Yale for our favorite field trip of the year, Yale Splash!  Splash is a day where college students open the campus to students in grades 7-12, and the college students teach their younger peers college-like courses.  This year, students choose from classes including:

• Mathematical Paradoxes
• The Basics of Improv
• Environmental Justice
• Origami Workshop
• Chemical Biology
• Making a Robot
• Decoding Language
• Game Theory
• Introductory French
• College Admissions
• Beatlemania
• The Grid
• Meditation
• Foundations of Feminism in Medieval Text
• The Reeb Foliation of the 3-Sphere
• What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur?

After a busy day of class, students took a tour of campus and had dinner in Yale's historic colleges.  Many took an opportunity to sleep on the ride back to New York City after such a busy day!

Read more about Yale Splash on their website. 

BEAM Recognized by the NPEA

BEAM is a proud member of the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA), a membership organization that brings together schools, non-profits, and scholarship providers who work together to ensure students have access to high quality education. 

NPEA features a member organization in their Member Spotlight interview.  You can read the full BEAM interview with Executive Director Daniel Zaharopol on the NPEA website.