Five countries earn top spots at Caribbean Stem Olympiads
The Caribbean Science Foundation (CSF) hosted the first-ever Caribbean Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Olympiads online between January 20 and 22, 2023.
Individuals and teams representing educational institutions, groups, or individuals competed in multiple events at three distinct age levels: Level 1 for those aged 12 to 15, Level 2 for those aged 16 to 18, and Level 3 for those aged 19 to 21.
Math Olympiads, a Robotics Showcase, and Computer Coding Games comprised the event. The Computer Coding Games consisted of Apps and Websites designed to address one of the six difficulties Caribbean communities confront (energy production and consumption, food security and food safety, non-communicable diseases, transportation, money movement, financial education, and geo hazards and climate change).
Ten Caribbean nations registered a total of 215 students for the Olympiads. Following the preliminary rounds, thirty teams (98 students) advanced to the finals.
There were 28 Math Olympiads finals, 34 Robotics Showcase finalists, and 36 Computer Coding Games finalists. The categories for medal certificates were platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. In addition, the teams received cash prizes of $400 (platinum), $300 (gold), $200 (silver), and $100 (bronze).
At the awards ceremony on Sunday, 22 January 2023, Jamaica won the most medals with seven, followed by Guyana with five, Barbados with four, Trinidad and Tobago with four as well, and Antigua and Barbuda with three (two of which were gold).
Notable was the fact that girls earned almost five times as many medals as their male counterparts.
The country of Jamaica won three platinum medals. Ehinome Ehikhametalor, who attends Campion College but competed as an individual, won the Level 1 Math Olympiad platinum medal; Micaela Mclean, Orvi-Ann Brown, and Keneilia Bailey of the Glenmuir Math Club won the Level 3 Math Olympiad platinum medal; and Abigail Allen, Laraine Williams, Nishanae Williams, Demaria Walker, and Kristian Coke of Campion College won the Level 2 Computer Coding Games platinum medal.
Fazeel Ali, Saleem Salick, and Raymond Liu of Presentation College, Chaguanas won the platinum medal in Math Level 2; Sarah Sellier (on gap year) and Neysa Sylvan (University of Trinidad and Tobago) won the platinum medal in Level 3 Computer Coding Games as a private team.
For their clothes-folding robot, Jamani Bowen, Trevan Parris, Malik Blackman, Mystica Inniss, and Jovani Gittens of Harrison College’s Kolij Robotics Club (Barbados) were awarded the golden medal at the Level 2 Robotics Showcase.
The Interim Director of the CSF, Professor Cardinal Warde, exclaimed, “I am really happy and surprised by the high level of STEM talent in the region! I have to question if I could have answered the challenging Math Olympiads Level 3 issues as rapidly as the platinum medalists.”
To make the inaugural Olympiads a success, he praised the judges, his staff, the institutional and individual sponsors, and his friends and family who made very last-minute financial contributions.
