Massey scores big in biology

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This article was published 07/06/2012 (4888 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Biology students from Vincent Massey High School tangled with students from around the world in the annual University of Toronto National Biology Competition — and they did their school proud.

This competition is open to schools worldwide, with the majority of participating schools coming from Canada, the United States and parts of Asia.

Out of the 300 schools participating, the Massey team placed 16th.

More impressively, Massey was the top scoring team out of the 17 Manitoba schools, public and private, that entered the competition.

To be eligible for the team competition, a school must have at least five participants. The team score is calculated based on the top five student scores.

Massey’s team included Isaac Kim, Cody Cherepuschak, Gol Roberts, Eric Badiou and Leslie Skead, some of whom racked up some impressive individual honours as well.

Roberts, a Grade 12 student, was awarded a National Biology Scholar Award as her score ranked her 85th highest score out of the 4,332 students who competed.

Kim, a Grade 11 student, was awarded a National Biology Scholar with Distinction Award for having the 49th highest score out of the 4,332 students who competed — placing him in the top two per cent of all the students who wrote the exam. He was also awarded the Certificate of Achievement for having received the top mark out of the students who wrote the exam from Vincent Massey High School.

Cherepuschak, another Grade 11 student, also won a National Biology Scholar Award for having the 52nd highest score out of the 4,332 students. He, too, placed in the top two per cent of students who wrote the exam.

Biology teacher Lindsay Metruk is proud of her students for accomplishing such impressive scores in this prestigious contest and credits the rigour of the Advanced Placement program at Massey for such a strong foundation in biology.

Vincent Massey has been participating in this competition since 2006. The top 50 students receive a cash prize.

All of the results can be found at biocomp.utoronto.ca.

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And has Math success, too

A Vincent Massey High School student ranked first in the province in an international math competition.

Grade 12 student Liwen Lu topped 291 Manitobans who wrote this year’s University of Waterloo Mathematics Contest.

She also placed 14th out of 9,218 international students who took part in the contest, her score being in the top 1.5 per cent. She will receive a Certificate of Distinction for scores in the top 25 per cent.

Administered by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at Waterloo University, this internationally recognized mathematics competition is designed primarily for students in their final year of secondary school and provides students with an opportunity to develop their mathematical problem solving ability.

This year, 87 students from Vincent Massey wrote the contest on Feb. 23 and April 11. Grade 9 student Seth Friesen placed second out of 1,119 students in the province.

Vincent Massey’s top three scores in Grade 9 went to Friesen, John Pryke and Andy Liao. In Grade 10, the top three students were Elise Poole, Roman Clarke and Taoning Yu. In Grade 11, Samuel Sun, Jihwan Lee and Chuka Obijiaku had the top scores. Lu, Dylan Burrell and Ross Cooper were the top three Grade 12 students.

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