The KSEA NY Metropolitan Chapter Math/Science Olympiad (KMSO) is dedicated to promoting and nurturing curious young minds in their pursuit of intellectual challenge, to helping them discover the joy of science and math, and to providing them with mentoring and a sense of community. What makes this Olympiad even more special is that the volunteers are undergraduate students, graduate students, professional engineers, scientists, or professors who can share their experiences and knowledge in their respective fields. Students and parents are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Olympiad such as speaking with volunteers and guest speakers who are more than willing to provide advice, tips, and words of encouragement.
This year marked the 28th year of the KMSO. This event has grown through two decades of Korean American history in the tristate New York Community. We sincerely thank LG Electronics USA for over 20 years of dedication to and continuous support for KMSO and the KSEA NY Metropolitan Chapter. This is also supported by the Korea-US Science Cooperation Center (KUSCO), St. John’s University, the Consulate General of Korea in New York, and the NYC Government.
We held our event on November 21, 2021, at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. A total of 186 students participated in the event.
For the science, there are 5 science competitions and 2 special competition groups:
Science competition
Science Entry Level for Grades 2-3 titled “Make a rainbow!” supervised by Dr. Stephan Suh
Science General for Grades 4-5 titled “Mysterious liquid color” supervised by Dr. Min Suk Kang
Science Physics for Grades 6-7 titled “Building Bridges” supervised by Dr. Changkyu Kim
Science Chemistry for Grades 8-9 titled “Chromatography: Who am I?” supervised by Dr. Junyong Choi
Science Written Exam for Grades 10-11 supervised by Dr. Sae Woong Park
Special competition
Science Poster Presentation for Grades 10/11/12 supervised by Dr. Chang-Yong Nam
Coding for Robotics for grades 6 – 12 supervised by Dr. Teryn Cha.
The math competition had eight groups of 4th to 11th graders chaired by Drs. Jun Ho Shin. The competitions were supervised by Hyunju Kwon, Hyunjung Hwang, Wonsook Lee, Sung Eun Choi, Sae Woong Park, and Eon Soo Lee.
We had programs for parents during the Olympiad which was chaired by Dr. Min Suk Kang. Dr. Jae Ki Lee and Ohbong Kwon, who are a math professor in Manhattan community college and New York City College of Technology, respectively, presented “Mathematics teaching methods that are changing recently in public universities” and “The cornerstone of mathematical solution” to relieve the importance of math and help their children go to college.
The award ceremony of KMSO 2021 was held on Saturday, December 11th in D’Angelo Center, St. John’s University. Dr. Byungkyu Brian Park, the President of KSEA, gave a congratulatory remark by zoom. 63 students took prizes home, including New York City Mayer’s awards, St. John’s University President’s awards, Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in New York awards, LG Electronics special awards, and KSEA president’s awards.
Almost 100 parents and families participated in KMSO and 50 volunteers and speakers from diverse institutions helped with the event, including City College of New York, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Hofstra University, Manhattan Community College, New York Korean Biologists, New York University, Queens College, Queens borough Community College, and Stony Brook University.
We hope that the participants in the Olympiad had a great experience in discovering the fun and excitement of problem-solving and discovering something new. We look forward to the day when these same participants will come back 20 years from now as volunteers and support this community’s invaluable tradition as some of our volunteers are already doing today. We truly thank all of the volunteers. Without you, this event would not have been possible.
Reported by Keun Woo Park
Key Leadership: Mingi Hong, chair of KSEA NY metropolitan chapter
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