28/06/2018

In Coruripe (AL), a project improves performance in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools).

Karine Rodrigues

Coruripe, in southern Alagoas, only recently ceased to be considered a small municipality. It has just over 50,000 inhabitants, according to the last IBGE Census. For teacher Alexandrina Ferreira Gouveia, the city represented a challenge. After eight years in the classroom and some experience in school management in the village of Colônia Pindorama, she hesitated before accepting a transfer to the municipal seat, to a larger educational unit. She ended up accepting the challenge. And 20 years have passed since then.

“It worked out. When you really want something, you can achieve it. I spent sleepless nights organizing everything,” recalls Alexandrina, director of the Liege Gama Rocha Municipal School, about preparing to manage a busy school with two segments of Elementary Education, something unprecedented for her. There are three shifts, with approximately 1,800 students, from 1st to 9th grade, and classes for Youth and Adult Education (EJA).

Over the past two decades, other challenges have arisen for Alexandrina. One of them concerns the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). As the director of Liege Gama Rocha, a school that has participated in the competition since its creation by IMPA (Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics) in 2005, she would like to see her students among the medalists, going beyond the seven honorable mentions they have received during nine years of participation in the Olympiad.

In 2013, the principal discussed her desire with Antônio Gonçalves, a mathematics teacher at the institution, who immediately embraced the idea and agreed to help voluntarily. Thus, the Mathematics Learning Laboratory was created, through which students have three hours of extra tutoring outside of regular school hours, five days a week. Currently, about 60 students divided into two groups participate in the project.

“At first, I asked the teachers to nominate the students who stood out the most. Then, the students themselves started to get interested and asked to participate,” says Alexandrina.

Os alunos vestiram, literalmente, a camisa da OBMEP, criando um movimento que mobilizou toda a escola

The medals soon followed. In 2014, the school won its first three medals since it began participating in the competition in 2005. The following year, 2015, it won four; in 2016, five; and last year, the number doubled, reaching ten medals (1 silver and 9 bronze). In 2017, Liege Gama Rocha obtained the highest number of medals among schools in the municipal and state networks, as well as private schools.

The improved performance spread throughout the school, which recently began offering students another way to delve deeper into mathematics. It became a participant in the Intensive Training Olympic Center (POTI) program, an OBMEP program that offers free mathematics courses to students in the 8th and 9th grades of elementary school and any year of high school. Since the medalists already participate in the Scientific Initiation Program (PIC) offered by OBMEP, with a weekly class with university professors in Maceió, they end up spreading the idea among their peers that it is possible to go further through studies.

OBMEP is also a learning experience for teachers.

Professor Antônio Gonçalves, who has taught at the Liege Gama Rocha School since 2006, says that when he first encountered an OBMEP exam, he found it difficult to solve the questions. “I thought that if it happened to me, the same thing would likely happen to my students. Because of this, I became concerned and began to delve deeper into my studies,” he says.

It wasn't easy, he admits. To master the subject, he spent a year poring over the questions used in all editions of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). "I would go to sleep around 1 a.m. every day. In the morning, class; in the afternoon, Learning Lab; at night, I studied the questions until the early hours of the morning," he says, recalling that, at home, the routine of total dedication was already causing quite a stir.

Edeilson (à esq.) e Warllisson, bronze na OBMEP, com Antônio (de preto) e Alexandrina (de cinza)

The effort paid off. Gonçalves even changed his teaching methodology. For his classroom performance and the students' achievements, he received awards in 2015, 2016, and 2017 – this year, he will come to Rio with another teacher from Alagoas to receive the award. "It's gratifying, the result of a long period of work. And everyone benefits from it," he says.

At 14 years old, 9th-grade student Edeilson Costa de Azevedo Filho has already participated in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) three times. In his debut, he didn't win a medal. “I realized I needed to dedicate myself more. Professor Antônio Gonçalves invited me to the Laboratory. I went, and the following year I won bronze. Last year, I was intimidated by the test, which was more complex, but I was studying hard and, because I had won bronze, I was doing the PIC (Scientific Initiation Program). I ended up winning another bronze.”

At home, he says, mathematics isn't universally loved, but everyone celebrated the medals. “My father doesn't like mathematics very much. My mother is a teacher. I work very hard to achieve my goals. The OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad) came as an incentive to realize my dreams. Besides that, the PIC (Scientific Initiation Program) is fantastic. We have professors with doctorates there. That's a real incentive,” the student emphasizes.

Professores na 1ª Semana Olimpíca: somando resultados e multiplicando vitórias, realizada este ano na Liege Gama

Eighth-grade student Marcos Azevedo Inácio Júnior also participates in the Learning Lab and won bronze last year. Like Edeilson, he has a commitment on Saturdays: traveling to the capital for PIC classes. "You start to feel proud of yourself," he says, regarding his achievements in OBMEP.

The results, Alexandrina points out, have brought benefits to the entire school: “The students who win medals are keen to say that everyone has this ability. You just have to want it and go after it. Through perseverance and a lot of studying. Now we are aiming for gold!”, she says optimistically.