10/07/2020

Medalist from Dores do Turvo wants to expand awards.

Guilherme com as medalhas olímpicas que coleciona

The small town of Dores do Turvo (MG), birthplace of Olympic medalists, is an inspiration for training new champions every year. Young Guilherme Moreira Castilho, 15, is one of them. With two gold and two bronze medals in the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP), he remains determined to expand his collection. And he knows that the town's tradition helps. “We left Juiz de Fora (MG) and came to Dores do Turvo (MG). It's a town a hundred times smaller! My mother, Josiane, is from here, and my parents decided to come here. There are many cultural differences. Before, we were in a big city. But I prefer living here,” says Guilherme, who moved to the town of 4,500 inhabitants 10 years ago.

“When we still lived in Juiz de Fora, I had never heard of anyone who had participated in the OBMEP, but here it's very different. The teachers are very involved and practically all the students at the Terezinha Pereira State School enjoy participating in the competition.”

With social isolation due to the coronavirus, the family is experiencing a new phase. In addition to taking care of the house, Josiane has started dividing her time between attending online classes with Guilherme and Manuela, her youngest daughter. Wando, the children's father, works as a security guard, but due to the pandemic he was reassigned to work at the sanitary checkpoint in Dores do Turvo, where he controls the entry and exit of people.

Guilherme acompanhado dos pais Wando e Josiane, e a irmã mais nova Manuela

Even without in-person classes at school, a "welcoming" place he misses, Guilherme continues studying for OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools). He also participates in the Junior Scientific Initiation Program (PIC) in a virtual format, where he receives exercises and problem solutions, in addition to submitting assignments and participating in video lessons with his classmates.

“With Olympic mathematics, you see stages now that you would only see later in your studies.” Among the discoveries that were anticipated, he highlights the Pythagorean Theorem as one of the most interesting topics. “These are exercises that demand more effort, but they give extra help when taking exams.” For him, mathematics can be defined as a challenging pastime, in which you end up dealing with an infinite number of things.

The success of Dores do Turvo in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) is the subject of the documentary "Derivadas" (Derivatives).

The strength of Dores do Turvo in the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools) is evident in the numbers. In its first ten years of participation, the municipality in the Zona da Mata region of Minas Gerais registered 229 awards, including gold, silver, and bronze medals, as well as honorable mentions. In 2012, it had the second-best result in the country. This success has attracted so much attention that it became the subject of the documentary "Derivadas," available on YouTube.

Claudia Carvalho, a mathematics teacher at Terezinha Pereira school for 16 years, believes that "OBMEP has changed students' vision of the future. They realized they can go further because they are participating in a national competition and see that they have the same capabilities as students from large urban centers." Inspired by the achievements driven by Professor Geraldo Amintas, known as Guingo , she intends to continue his work.

Professor de Matemática Geraldo Amintas, Guilherme e o diretor do colégio Leandro

“Guingo retired at the end of 2019, so I want to continue encouraging students to study mathematics.” She also points out that many of the students from Dores do Turvo who went on to university excelled in editions of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad for Public Schools).

The path Guilherme will soon be taking, and "probably in the field of exact sciences." For the student's father, it's exciting to be able to envision a future for his children with higher education. "I hope that he and Manuela, our youngest daughter, graduate and have a different life than they do now. I see that they have more opportunities and I hope they fulfill their role. As parents, we provide education and show them that they always need to move forward."