Two Montgomery Blair High School students, a Blair High School teacher, and Thomas S. Wootton High School have won state awards from the Siemens Foundation for their success with Advanced Placement (AP) programs.

Advanced Placement is a signature program of the College Board, which selects up to two students from every state as winners of Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement. The awards also recognize one AP teacher in math, science and technology from each state and one school from each state for exemplary teaching and AP participation.

Montgomery Blair High School students Yueyang Li and John Kim won Siemens Foundation scholarships of $2,000 each. The foundation offers awards for the top male and female student in each state who have earned the greatest number of grades of 5 on AP biology, calculus BC, chemistry, computer science AB, environmental science, physics C: electricity and magnetism, physics C: mechanics, and statistics. Both Li and Kim are students in the countywide Science, Mathematics, Computer Science magnet program at Blair.

Blair magnet teacher Nannette Dyas won the Siemens state teacher award and $1,000. Dyas teaches analysis 1A, analysis 1B, functions, and linear algebra in the magnet program. Teachers with a minimum of five years of teaching experience in math, science and technology courses are selected for their exemplary teaching and enthusiastic dedication to students and to the AP program.

Thomas S. Wootton High School was the Maryland school selected in recognition of its commitment to students and for being a leader in AP participation and performance. Wootton received a $1,000 grant from the Siemens Foundation to be used to support math and science education.

The third International Mathematics and Science study found that U.S. high school students who had taken the College Board’s AP calculus and physics courses were competitive with the best mathematics and science students in the world. More than 300,000 students across the nation take AP math and science exams.