THE 2022 YOUNG MATHEMATICAL STORY AUTHORS (YMSA)
COMPETITION
THE CINDY NEUSCHWANDER AWARD
(THE 12-15 YEARS OLD CATEGORY)
|
|
With 344 entries from 26 schools across 8 countries to judge, the Cindy Neuschwander Award (the 12-15 years old category) is very competitive this year.
The competition is also very inclusive with 188 female students, 154 male students and 2 self-identified non-binary students participated.
Many congratulations to the authors of the winning, shortlisted and longlisted entries! The winner receives £100 and their school another £100. The Award is generously funded by Charlesbridge.
You can read these talented authors' mathematical stories, their inspiration for the stories, and the judges' comments below.
Feel free to share their works on social media using the #YMSAMaths hashtag.
We would like to thank all the authors for taking part in this year's YMSA competition and to their schools (and parents) for encouraging them to participate in the competition. Below is the list of this year's participating schools for this age category.
Botany Downs Secondary College (New Zealand)
Bucklands Beach Intermediate School (New Zealand)
Collingwood Collegiate Institute (Canada)
Delhi World Public School Bangalore (India)
Dulwich College Beijing (China)
Dyatmika (Indonesia)
Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich (UK)
International School of Paphos (Cyprus)
Islamiyah Girls High School (UK)
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls (UK)
King James I Academy (UK)
Korah Collegiate High School (Canada)
Langley Grammar School (UK)
Leighton Park School (UK)
Macleans College (New Zealand)
Marymount International School Rome (Italy)
Oberoi International School JVLR (India)
Southlands British School Rome (Italy)
St Benedict’s School (UK)
St George’s International School, Rome (Italy)
St Margaret’s School for Girls (UK)
St Mary’s Wellington (New Zealand)
St Paul’s Girls’ School (UK)
Sutton Community Academy (UK)
The Hall School (UK)
Townley Grammar School for Girls (UK)
If you want to learn more about the winning, shortlisted and longlisted entries of our 2022 Stuart J. Murphy Award (the 8-11 years old category), click here.
If you want to learn more about our upcoming 2023 competition, click here.
If you want to learn more about our 2021 competition, click here.
If you want to learn more about our 2020 competition, click here.
If you want to learn more about our 2019 competition, click here.
WINNER
'Plotting For A Good Cause' by Elleanore Phillips (14 years old)
at Townley Grammar School for Girls (UK)
'Plotting For A Good Cause' by Elleanore Phillips (14 years old)
at Townley Grammar School for Girls (UK)
|
What the judges say:
"This engaging alien story takes the reader to planet Zagworld where two enterprising young aliens, Morzat and Yugnor, are trying to accurately determine what kinds of foods to serve when tourists come to visit. They examine sales during different weather conditions and try to see when certain food items (ice cream, hot chocolate, and snacks) sell best. Using clearly explained statistics and correlations, they discover that "the higher the temperature, the more ice cream based desserts we sold." Conversely, the higher the temperature, the fewer hot chocolates are sold. With snacks, they can determine no correlation between weather and food preferences. The story is clearly explained in both words and illustrations, memorable, and a fun read. Congratulations to author Elleanne Phillips for this delicious prize-winning entry!" |
|
What the author says: "The pandemic highlighted how important data interpretation skills are, so while learning about graphs in school, I knew that they would feature in my maths story. Maths is everywhere, and through a practical example, I wanted to demonstrate that we need to embrace maths to understand our universe more. This is the message my role model, Professor Hannah Fry, a mathematician and an amazing science communicator, is spreading. This was the root of my inspiration. The YMSA competition gave me the opportunity to turn mathematical concepts into a story to teach this topic to others. I enjoyed combining my maths knowledge with creativity and art. I would thoroughly encourage others to take part in the YMSA competition, as writing a story that involves showing the real-life application of maths and visualising maths will further improve your understanding of that topic … plus you will create something truly astounding and long-lasting!" |
|
What the judges say: "This story contained an intriguing idea, solvable by mathematics; how many times would a person need to fold a regular piece of paper (width 0.001 cm thick) to reach from Earth to the moon? You'll have to read this interesting story to find out! The illustrations are light and airy in tones of grays and blues, lending an etherial feel to the tale. Well done, Audrey!" |
|
What the author says: "The inspiration for my maths story was from my dad - he was asking me if I knew how many times you can fold a piece of paper until it becomes too stiff to fold again, and assuming that you can infinite times, the number of folds it would need for the thickness to become the distance between the Earth and moon, which I thought was very interesting and then did some research about. Creating a mathematical story picture book can be challenging, especially learning how to let the maths part of it fit naturally into the story and make it interesting to read at the same time. However, it is a good opportunity to use your writing skills, maths skills and artistic skills to teach others about maths and can be a very fun process, so do consider taking part in the YMSA competition!" |
SHORTLISTED
'Probylon The Lost Realm' by Navya Agarwal (12 years old)
at Oberoi International School JVLR (India)
'Probylon The Lost Realm' by Navya Agarwal (12 years old)
at Oberoi International School JVLR (India)
|
What the judges say:
"What an entertaining story this is! It features a group of friends learning to play a new game. One of the friends, Omar, is the clear winner. He shares his strategy with the rest of the players. It all comes down to the rolls of two dice. The author clearly explains the probability of double dice rolls and which rolls are most likely to come up. In this way, Omar can choose his game board squares most wisely. It is well written, the math clearly explained, with very nice illustrations. After reading this story, we were eager to play the game myself, Navya!" |
|
What the author says: "I enjoy playing board games with my family and when I was exploring ideas for my maths story, I knew I wanted to write one revolving around games. This time, I wanted to try something new, so I decided to build an actual board game which had a maths twist to it. Using coffee painting and lac to build the board was a fantastic experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of combining maths, art, and games! When I learnt probability, I really enjoyed it. Through the process of writing a story and creating a game based on it, I got to enhance my understanding about probability so much that it is now my favourite concept in maths so far. I thank YMSA for being such an amazing international platform on which students around the world can express their love for maths and further expand their own maths knowledge while explaining maths concepts to others in a fun manner. Everyone should take part in the YMSA competition!" |
SHORTLISTED
'The Probable End of the Island' by Virginia Marzia Massone (12 years old)
at Marymount International School Rome (Italy)
'The Probable End of the Island' by Virginia Marzia Massone (12 years old)
at Marymount International School Rome (Italy)
|
What the judges say: "This story chronicled a brother and sister living on an island where flooding often occurred. The siblings are wondering what chances the island has of surviving a flood but also what the impact of the COVID virus might have on the people who live there. Clearly explained in both words and images, this story explores the probability of one or both of these natural disasters seriously impacting their community. Nicely done, Virginia!" |
|
What the author says: "The inspiration for my maths story was a maths lesson on probability and the COVID pandemic. We have been bombarded with pandemic probabilities, death rates, statistics, and worldwide comparisons. Writing my maths story changed my perspective on maths: maths is no longer a series of repetitive formulas and calculations to work on in our classroom. Maths is, in fact, around us every day. I used the probability theory to interpret a real-life catastrophic event. I really wish that the probability theory can help us predict future pandemics and mitigate their impact. I would encourage everyone to take part in the YMSA competition. YMSA is not just a maths competition, but also a fun and creative way to learn maths!" |
SHORTLISTED
'Marina the Deepsea Deliveroo Mermaid' by Livi Randall (13 years old)
at Leighton Park School (UK)
'Marina the Deepsea Deliveroo Mermaid' by Livi Randall (13 years old)
at Leighton Park School (UK)
|
What the judges say: "This humorous tale explores a day in the life of a delivery mermaid as she tries to figure out how to get her quota of packages to their destinations. With the help of her merman tutor Wellies, Marina uses coordinate geometry and vectors to figure out how to get her packages to the proper addresses. He encourages her to 'use those vectors well!" Livi, this story displays math and humor at its best!" |
|
What the author says: "The inspiration for my story came from the electric classroom atmosphere we had as we were discussing ideas and brainstorming after the YMSA competition was announced to us. I think creating maths story picture books is a really fascinating process because you get to combine two cross-curricular subjects. It allows you to have a deeper mathematical understanding because you have to look into it more, and carefully think how you are going to explain it to others through your story’s characters. If someone was considering entering the YMSA competition, I would say “Definitely do it”, because it not only is an amazing mathematics learning and creative process, but it also allows you to build your confidence in yourself and your mathematical knowledge." |
SHORTLISTED
'Escher's Pegasi Tessellation' by Jonathan Yuan (12 years old)
at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'Escher's Pegasi Tessellation' by Jonathan Yuan (12 years old)
at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
|
What the judges say: "Tessellations is the name of the game in this engaging story. Max and his family visit a museum where they encounter the tessellation art by Escher. Intrigued, his father helps him to recreate one of the pictures he saw during his visit. The story provides step by step instructions on how to tessellate and recreate this image. The instructions were supported by excellent images to help the reader follow along. It was such fun that we wished you had included a couple more images that could tessellated. Great job, Jonathon!" |
|
What the author says: "I got the idea for my story when I was reading a book a year ago, about different patterns. When I saw this tessellation, I really wanted to know how it was drawn, each shape fitting together so closely. As I finally worked it out, I realised that it was drawn using maths! I found out that maths can exist everywhere. The mathematical concept included in this story was very similar to how I tried to work it out myself. It was fun making this mathematical story picture book, and I think that creating mathematical story picture books can help enhance your mathematical understanding. For me, I found this whole experience very fun and rewarding. At the same time, I learned something new too. I really recommend the YMSA competition to other students around the world as a chance to develop their mathematical understanding in a very fun way." |
LONGLISTED ENTRIES
The judges would also like to offer congratulations to authors of the following entries which were longlisted for the 2022 Cindy Neuschwander Award!
'Nikao's Whale' by Rebecca Kear (15 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'The Journey of Finding Beauty' by Sunny Wang (12 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'Tree Trouble' by Yang Kalli (12 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'A Day of An Ant Family' by Ruiyang Liu (12 years old) at the International School of Paphos (Cyprus)
'Maps and Migration' by Alice Yi (13 years old) at Leighton Park School (UK)
'Sea of Hope' by Chace Chong (12 years old) at Bucklands Beach Intermediate School (New Zealand)
The judges would also like to offer congratulations to authors of the following entries which were longlisted for the 2022 Cindy Neuschwander Award!
'Nikao's Whale' by Rebecca Kear (15 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'The Journey of Finding Beauty' by Sunny Wang (12 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'Tree Trouble' by Yang Kalli (12 years old) at Dulwich College Beijing (China)
'A Day of An Ant Family' by Ruiyang Liu (12 years old) at the International School of Paphos (Cyprus)
'Maps and Migration' by Alice Yi (13 years old) at Leighton Park School (UK)
'Sea of Hope' by Chace Chong (12 years old) at Bucklands Beach Intermediate School (New Zealand)
