My goal at the beginning of the year was to expand my knowledge of math beyond school and Sylvan. Challenging myself, along with solving math problems in an the most efficient way possible, was my goal. Through GEMS this was accomplished, and I had fun doing it. But there is still so much more math to learn. GEMS helped me make it easier to understand the problem and the steps to each one.
The best part about GEMS is the ability to ask questions and get immediate explanations that are easy to understand I've always loved math and science (especially math). This class really helped me understand how to think outside of the box, and made me understand how much more there is to learn. Unfortunately, the first math GEMS competition that I was going to participate in was canceled due to COVID-19. However, I have participated in Robotics for the last 5 years and Invention Convention for the last 2 years. In Robotics, my team has made it to States almost every year, and also made it to World's one year! Last year for Invention Convention, at State's, my team received the Educator's Choice award which moved us into the final competition at Nationals. There, we received an invitation to showcase our invention S3 - Suck, Shake, Sort (Lego Sorting machine) on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon which was an experience like no other. My team's invention this year is called the Floating A-Forest-Stations and are floating forests of mangrove trees and seaweed in our oceans, with the purpose of reducing CO2 in our atmosphere and waters. So far we have made it to States and we find out in a couple weeks if we advance further. This year's invention incorporated a lot of math and science using Newton's 2nd law, Archimedes principle, Lord Rayleigh's equation and more!
Tyler Parks