Filipino kids whose lives are bound up in mathematics and science collected medals during the recently concluded 9th International Mathematics and Science Olympiad (IMSO) for Primary Schools 2012 held in City Montessori School, RDSO Campus, Manak Nagar, Lucknow, India on October 29 – November 1, 2012.

Responded to a challenge and did exactly what the challenge asked of him was the sole gold reaper of the Philippine teams in the math contest,Shaquille Wyan T. Que of Grace Christian College.

Putting the Philippines in the good overall ranking were the 5 mathletes who played their ace. They were Tiffany Mae Ong of Immaculate Conception Academy-Greenhills, Emmanuel Paulo Santos of Colegio San Agustin-Binan,Jinger Chong of St. Jude Catholic School, Alyana Zoei Chua of MGC New Life Christian Academy and Vincent Angelo Suarez of De la Salle, Lipa.

Another group of Filipino math wizards left their mark on the 9^th IMSO through winning the bronze medals. The bronze awardees were Mark Ebson Susana of Naic Elementary School- Cavite, Theresa Manalo of Morning Star Montessori, Calamba –Laguna, Maedell Mosuera of G. B. Lontok Memorial School- Lipa City, Fedrick Lance Lim of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School,Marksen Victor Lizarondo of Dasmarinas II Central School - Cavite andNathan Arthur Banatao of UP Integrated School, Diliman.

As for the Philippine team in the Science contest, 6 science wizards managed to hook the silver medals, they were John Matthew Felices of Holistic Education and Development Center- Rizal, Kristine Bernadette Nunez of Colegio San Agustin, Binan, Adam Christopher Chan of Grace Christian College, Youna Lee and Antonio Alexis Aldaguer of Colegio San Agustin, Makati and Ron Michael Acda of De La Salle, Lipa.

The other Pinoy science participants who brought home the bronze medals were Hans Leighton Liu of St. Jude Catholic School, Thomas Spencer Balete of St. Stephen’s High School,Ronn Earnest Tullao of Early Start Learning Center- Lipa City,John Joshua Babilonia of Dasmarinas II Central School andJohn Bien Angelo Uy of Montessori East of Tanauan.

Drawing math and science participants from 12 countries like China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa (Durban and Cape Town teams), Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand, the 9^th IMSO, an individual competition, consisted of two problems for each subject: theoretical and exploration problems for Mathematics and theoretical and experimental problems for Science.

The problems are constructed based on Mathematics and Science elementary school curricula, reference books, and other relevant sources which cover intellectual reasoning and creativity.

Dr. Simon Chua, MTG president, commented that the IMSO results showed the need to improve the training of trainers so trainees can have better chances to better in international math contests. Furthermore, no less than Prof. Saladin of Indonesia, an IMSO juror since 2004, recalled the poor performance of Thailand in the first three years of IMSO, yet now Thailand, a non- English speaking country, gathered 6 gold medals in math and 3 in science.

With this observation, Dr. Chua challenges trainers to walk extra miles and do better than their best in all MTG trainings specifically in the ongoing 12-Saturday sessions. He further said, “It is high time for us to improve our training and not to keep sending students in any international math competitions without equipping them with sufficient training."