When I was in school math was always my… achilles heel… That means it was a weakness of mine and something that I needed a little bit of extra help in. Mohammad Zoraiz, an eleventh grader at Mayfield High School, created AchillesMath, an app that can offer that extra help for those who struggle with math! For that, he is this week’s A+ Award winner.
Mohammad, who told us that he loves to read the news, started to see a lot of articles in paper and online describing the decline in math scores across the state of Ohio because of the pandemic. “Scores fell 12 to 16 percent,” he told us.
That decline in math scores inspired Mohammad to use his coding skills to build an app. He wanted to help students who were struggling with learning. He used his experience as a tutor to start to develop practice problems that would help students in areas that he knew they struggled.
“I hoped to create an app that would use artificial intelligence to support students with what they needed,” Mohommad explained. Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or a robot controlled by a computer to do tasks that are usually done by humans. His app can actually create a lesson for an individual student based on what they need help with!
Mohammad started to learn how to code in eighth grade and has taken A-P courses in computer science. He’s taken what he’s learned, and used it to develop Achilles Math. He told us that along the way, he’s also learned a few new coding skills to create a functional app. He plans to keep testing the app this spring and hopes to have it ready for use by the end of the summer.
Mohammad hopes to attend Princeton University or MIT after graduation. He wants to study computer engineering or mechanical engineering and use his skills and knowledge to help students learn.
We asked Mohammad what advice he would give to all of you and he said “never forget to read. Read everything. Try to read two nonfiction books for every fiction book because you can really learn about yourself and what is happening in the world.” That’s great advice!
This week’s A+ Award goes to Mohammad at Mayfield High School for developing the Achilles Math app to help students learn. Keep it up Mohammad!
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