What it's all about

IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION

The main idea of this project is to organize one-off math-based competition for children of age 10-11 (alternatively 11-12 which was the first suggestion but according to opinions of our project supervisors it is easier to contact primary schools than secondary).

We will narrow our list of schools beforehand. Whether school will be chosen or not depends mainly on the distance between that school and UCL, as we want to keep the travel expenses and times as low as possible (therefore we will rather choose schools adjacent to UCL). We will subsequently contact these schools, describe the actual project and ask if they want to participate. Then, there is need to estimate the very level of education of English children in terms of Maths which could be done both by using contacts which we will have made up and by examining the current English curricula for mathematics. The selection of mathematical exercises and problems will be based upon this estimation.

We are planning to involve 100-200 kids. We need a hall and sufficient amount of tables and chairs due to this number. This might be discussed with both UCL and the schools, which have serious interest (they are able to provide us with the hall, e.g. gym, and the tables and chairs as well).

The participating schools will receive instructions in advance. Kids who would like to compete will be supposed to split up to teams of 4-5 pupils. There will be a limit of number of competing teams per school and other limitations/restrictions as well.

The competition should last for approximately 4-5 hours. This involves the registration of competing teams, explaining the rules, the actual competition, evaluation of results (some side activity for the participants during compiling the order – Magical society performance?), and announcing of winners.

How does it work? In the beginning, every team will obtain the same set of exercises. They will have a time limit (approximately 90 minutes) during which they are supposed to solve as many of exercises as possible. Once one solves an exercise he will check his result and working (!). If it is correct, he will obtain another exercise (the next in the order). If it is wrong then he will return back to his seat (they have unlimited number of attempts). Kids are supposed to stay within their team – every team will have a table. The set of exercises is same for everyone, however, they will receive particular exercises at different times, depending on their speed.

In addition, there will be a ‘game’ (this game is the actual competitive factor), which will be run parallel to the solving part. For example, in the beginning of the competition, each team will be located somewhere on the border of a circular map. They aim to get to the center through a grid of roads of different lengths. For each correct result the team will ‘obtain’ some spare kilometers and will have to choose which way to go to get to the center as fast as possible.

Compiling of the results will be done real-time because kids will have to hand the result immediately after they solve the exercise (we will emphasize this to avoid accumulation of waiting kids in the end of time limit, and to reduce the duration of compiling; but it should be natural for most of them to hand the results in as soon as possible to ensure they will move quickly).

We will not be able to involve volunteers in the developmental stages of our project. Partly because people selecting the suitable exercises for competition have to be experienced in such terms and partly because we have to contact and liaise with schools, which cannot be done by anyone else.
However, we will definitely need volunteers for performing the competition. These roles will be available:
· People, who will check the results and working – correctors,
· People, who will collect the correct results and hand out the next exercises,
· People receiving the demands for ‘moving’ on the map,
· People compiling the order according to movements of teams on the map,
· Coordinators – they will answer questions of kids and report problems as appropriate.
Good knowledge of mathematics is necessary. We will announce the concrete numbers of volunteers required per each role later.

Depending on the format of the game, we will need to program an application, which will receive the movements of teams immediately after their demand, to make the actual position of teams available to everyone (via data projector).

We will need an activity for teachers who will be staying there during competition and some refreshments both for children and teachers. Also, we will need prizes for teams and some reminders, maybe (t-shirts, etc.?).

WHAT LIES BENEATH

What is the aim of the project:
We would like to provide an additional knowledge and experience in the area of Maths to English kids. In addition, we would like to support some of theirs transferable skills – ability of teamwork, proper explaining and independent approach to decision making.Our aim is to achieve this by creating a competitive atmosphere amongst the young participants, which might cause, as we hope, a long-term effect – stimulate their interest in Maths and related subjects.

What are the main objectives of the project:
We are going to organize a Maths competition for kids. They will need to be creative in using of common mathematical techniques and procedures, as the exercises will be unusual and unfamiliar in comparison with exercises used commonly in primary schools.Pupils will compete in teams – they will be split into teams beforehand (based on their preferences to avoid conflicts during the competition); they will be motivated to cooperate and help each other with solving of exercises. The format of the competition will force them to explain their working (how they got the result). They will have to do important decisions (which will influence the team’s progress) on their own, without the opinions of other members of team; if they didn’t it would slow down their progress.
By using interesting exercises and original format of the competition, we hope we will spread interest amongst children. We hope that the feeling of this experience will break the overall notion of boredom of Maths, which is quite common in schools.

What's needed to make it a reality