Girls’ Adventures in Math (GAIM)
Burke’s 4th-8th graders put their best mathematical foot forward in the 2024 GAIM competition!
GAIM, or Girls’ Adventures in Math, is an online, team-based math competition for girls to embrace the mathematician part of their core identities. Unlike traditional math competitions which tend to feature math problems out of context, this challenge encourages teamwork and problem-solving and presents the problems in a comic book format. The questions feature four women from history, with this year highlighting climate scientist Eunice Newton Foote, governor Sarojini Naidu, aerospace engineer Mary Golda Ross, and chess player Lyudmila Rudenko.
The competition is split into two levels. Our 4th and 5th graders participated in the elementary level of the competition, while our 6th-8th graders participated in the middle school level. Overall, this is Burke’s fourth year participating in GAIM, and the second year that the 4th and 5th graders have joined the challenge. This year, Burke’s hosted 108 student competitors (55 students from 4th and 5th grades and 53 participants from 6th-8th grades), a big increase from last year’s 84 participants.
Interested participants began preparing in early March with their assigned teams, which consisted of mixed grades. With 28 teams in total, these practices not only honed mathematical and analytical skills, but also gave students a chance to synergize and work together as a team before the two rounds of timed competition. Upper School Math Specialist May Wong remarks, “During the practices, I enjoyed seeing the older students teach the younger students strategies and skills. It helped them during the competition when I saw how students were completely immersed in the problems, looking at them from different angles.”
The first round gave 4th and 5th graders exactly 45 minutes to answer 12 questions, while the 6th-8th graders had 60 minutes to crack 16 questions. The second round called for students to apply their knowledge of the order of operations and concatenation to create expressions with a value of 24.
If all this sounds complicated and challenging, it’s because it is! “GAIM sent the coaches an email acknowledging a step-up in difficulty level from last year’s competition,” Ms. Wong explains. “Their goal was to have the students put their heads together and lean into the value of teamwork, and that’s what our kids did!”
Kudos to our young mathematicians!
Burke's mission is to educate, encourage and empower girls. Our school combines academic excellence with an appreciation for childhood so that students thrive as learners, develop a strong sense of self, contribute to community, and fulfill their potential, now and throughout life.
Burke's admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.