Bethpage High School Student and Teacher Published in Math Journal

Bethpage High School senior Kevin Sackel and his teacher, Mr. Leon La Spina, co-authored an article that was published in the February issue of Mathematics Teacher, the officialjournal of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The article, “Counting Lattice Points: An Extension of an AMC Problem,” focuses on the pattern and formula used to solve a particular math problem.

The basis for this article stemmed from the 2006 American Mathematics Competition-12 (AMC-12) B exam, which posed a question that Kevin and Mr. La Spina both answered correctly but solved in very different manners. Kevin noticed a pattern and used a formula to arrive at his answer in a matter of minutes, whereas Mr. La Spina’s solution required more time and careful counting. Mr. La Spina and Kevin set out to combine their efforts to prove the formula using mathematical induction.

Mr. La Spina realized that his and Kevin’s collaborative efforts were interesting and significant enough to be published in the journal, and the two composed the article’s content. “Kevin has spent a lot more time solving math problems than the average student,” said Mr. La Spina. “He’s relentless when he sees a question he can’t solve.” Mr. La Spina expressed his high regard for Kevin, explaining that after their many hours of working together on math challenges, he sees him as a colleague as well as a student.

Kevin has always enjoyed math and understood concepts easily. He attended Math Path camp during his middle school years, where he met Mr. La Spina, who presented him with some problems from the AMC contest. Kevin skipped ninth grade math and went straight to tenth grade honors math during his freshman year at Bethpage High School, then moved on to take a senior level calculus class as a sophomore. A well-rounded student, he is also involved in the High School’s Robotics Club, is a member of All-County Orchestra, and has the lead role in an upcoming school drama production.

Mr. La Spina teaches Math 10 Advanced, Introduction to Computer Programming, Cisco Networking Academy 1 and 3, and AP Computer Science-Java. He earned his undergraduate degree in Mathematics as well as his Masters Degree from SUNY Stony Brook.