SOUTH EUCLID, OH—Yuriy Glukhov earned more than 47,500 stickers in the First In Math® Online Program en route to becoming the 2010/2011 Top Player in the Nation, All Grades. The determined 6th-grader outplayed more than 1.2 million students who participated in the online math competition.
Yuriy Glukhov proudly displays the FIM All Star Award he received as the #1 Player in the Nation, All Grades. Glukhov also received an Apple iTouch. Inset: Robert Sun, FIM creator, congratulates Glukhov and his parents.
Glukhov attends Greenview Upper Elementary School in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst School District located in the metro Cleveland, Ohio area. His parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia, were beaming during the award ceremony held in his honor. "We are very proud of him," said his father, Alexander. According to his mom, Svetlana, math is his favorite subject in school, but he also loves chess, swimming, diving, and science fiction, even writing stories of his own.
Annemarie Mockler, 5th/6th grade Math Specialist, meets with students once a week to enhance their math skills and concepts. Mockler, along with Steven Weinberg, ran the First in Math program for Greenview's 900 students in grades 4 through 6. "I worked with Yuriy once a week in the math lab, where I got to witness his mental-math skills as well as his perseverance," says Mockler. "Yuriy is never one to give up. I will never forget him working with the fractions Skill Set, figuring out what happens to fractions when you multiply and divide them, through experimentation. The amount of math he learned participating in First in Math astounds me. I really enjoyed watching his confidence grow as he completed each challenge."
"Yuriy is super-friendly and always willing to help out other students with the First in Math program—not just jumping in and doing it for them, but sitting down and peer tutoring them in fractions, decimals, integers, and algebraic thinking," says Mockler. "He is also very humble, and was truly honored to have risen to first in the nation, and to meet Bob Sun at the awards ceremony."
Glukhov's sixth-grade math teacher, Faye Delgado, characterizes her student as a hard worker who takes pride in his accomplishments. Glukhov says his favorite game on the FIM website is Pundi's Puzzle. "I spent about three hours a day playing First In Math," explains Glukhov. "I really didn't play to win anything. I just enjoyed it." When he graduates, Glukhov plans to attend college and perhaps become a biologist.