North Penn HS makes finals of national Moody’s Mega Math Challenge

North Penn High School beat out more than 1,000 submissions to make it to the finals of Moody’s Mega Math Challenge, an annual national science challenge organized by a Philadelphia-based organization. The Lansdale school is one of six schools that will compete next week in the New York City finals.

Students were asked to tackle the problem of plastic waste: they had to come up with ways to quantify and recycle the more than 30 million tons of plastic waste the world produces each year, as well as develop recommendations for nationwide recycling standards.

Organized by University City’s Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the challenge will award $2,500 to $20,000 in scholarships to the six finalists based on their rankings.

Out of more than 1,000 submissions, 175 submissions [pdf] advanced to the second round of judging. Of those 175 submissions, nearly 20 submissions were from Pennsylvania schools, including two teams from Philly’s Masterman High School.