MS Debate & Math Spring 2021

Middle School Debate Team

The Middle School debate team competed in two final debates this spring. Coach Felicia Kalkman guided the team as they debated whether, in the United States, social media is beneficial for democratic values. Here are the results from the two divisions in which our students competed:

• 2nd place: Cameron ’28 and Ethan ’27
• 3rd place: Thalia ’28  and Anna ’28
• 4th place: Charlie ’28 and Samuel ’28
   
• 2nd place: Ananth ’27 and Jacob ’27
• 3rd place: Maddy ’27 and Layla ’25
• 6th place: Phineas ’27 and Tristan ’27 

Middle School Math Club

Susie Loutoo shared this update from the Middle School Math Club:

The Middle School Math Club continues to shine with the achievements of students who participate weekly throughout the school year. Highlights from this year include stellar performances in MathCounts competitions, Math Olympiads for Middle School Students, and the AMC 8 in addition to those individual gains of practicing problem-solving independently and collaboratively with peers.

In the national MathCounts competitions this year, an outstanding group of five students, including Ben ’25, Lock ’25, Nora ’25, Grace ’25, and Lucas ’26, represented GDS at the state-level competition in March. Based on individual results from this competition, the students with the top four scores in DC make up the team representing DC at the MathCounts National Competition. Competition is fierce, and those who don't make the team going to Nationals often miss making that team by one point.  

GDS 7th grader, Lucas Qi, achieved one of those top four scores and was part of the DC MathCounts team going to the National Competition this year. (That competition was slated to be held in DC earlier this month, but, given health concerns, was run virtually instead.) This year, the team round was run for fun but did not count toward final scores. 224 students competed in the National MathCounts competition, including one four-person team from each state, in addition to teams competing from US Territories and State Department schools overseas. 

The national competition is a huge event that this year included 12 events spread over three days. One of these events was an Escape Room activity, while others included team challenges. For the past several years, MathCounts has also run a video competition, in which teams present an entertaining video based on solving a math problem. The videos are shown during nationals and the audience votes on their favorite. GDS has had students on the DC team competing at nationals for the past five years. Go Hoppers!