– I am full of emotion and I probably still cannot fully believe what happened! – says Paweł Kruglik, a mathematics teacher who prepared the students to take part in the competition.
– This is a success on an unprecedented scale. Laura Witnik, Jan Obrycki and Mikołaj Skwara, who are first-year students in the mathematics class at Oxpress, have defeated more than 1,000 students from all over Poland since the beginning of this edition of the Competition. That is around 350 teams, and our team proved better than them; moreover, only the 5 best teams won advancement to the national final. Our team finished in 3rd place in Poland! It is an enormous achievement that Laura, Jan and Mikołaj – and let us emphasize that they are only in their first year – have already made it among the best teams in Europe! Several thousand participants, and among the leading teams there is Liceum Oxpress. – Mr Paweł continues.
It is worth adding that the Oxpress team consists of students from a class with a science-oriented profile, where mathematics is taught at an advanced level for 8 hours a week. Classes are therefore held every day, for 2 hours – first-year classes have Fridays off.
And what did the tasks involve?
– Over the last 2 months, our team prepared a statistical project on changes in tourism in Poland in the years 2019–2024. The students had to present a paper on changes in accommodation facilities in Poland and show how the Covid pandemic affected tourism. The young people based their work on the huge database provided by the organizer, and used many statistical parameters in their work; the students showed what changes the Polish tourism market had undergone by calculating, among other things, Pearson correlation coefficients and intensity coefficients, as well as building trend lines and preparing appropriate charts illustrating their research results. The Oxpress team's work gained the approval of around 30 jury members, says a proud Paweł Kruglik. And after a moment he adds:
– We are shocked and still cannot believe that the students of Liceum Oxpress already belong to the best students in Poland, and in such a challenging field as statistics... However, we are not saying our last word and will begin preparing for the final stage soon. The best 5 teams will compete for advancement to the final of the European competition.
We are keeping our fingers crossed for III LO OXPRESS, which promotes Bolesławiec through its successes: we have wonderful young people and teachers, ambition and opportunities – and the best is still ahead of us!
It is also worth adding that EKS laureates receive not only prestigious material and financial prizes, but above all „Golden Indexes” to the best technical and economic universities in Poland.