Celebration of Maths Week 2018

Celebration of Maths Week 2018

The Third Annual Maths Week was celebrated in with great enthusiasm from Monday 26th to Wednesday 28th February 2018. A range of different activities that included Online Mathematics Quizzes for each Key Stage, the Human Calculator Competition, Pi Bee Competition, Rubik’s Cube Challenge, the Sudoku Championship, a Treasure Hunt Competition and the Mathematics Exhibition.

Maths Week Assembly

We started the Maths Week in our Monday morning assembly.

With a series of questions posed to our brave volunteers, students were taught Vedic Maths using shortcuts to multiply two digit numbers and three digit numbers. In specifics, multiplying numbers by 11, and squaring numbers ending in 5. Our aim of being able to do such sums within 3 seconds was achieved and the students were incredibly enthusiastic in answering questions posed to the audience.

Following this session, we had an extensive display of seemingly Incomprehensible Maths Illusions from the 17th century, and their modern recreations, such as the Pen-Rose triangle and the waterfall illusion in the game called Momentum. It was pleasing to observe that some students cracked the illusions shown, while others were in great confusion till they finally understood.

Finally, the assembly concluded with a short video which briefly recapped the Maths Week of past years as wells as the days leading to Maths Week of 2018, giving a glimpse of our Rubik’s Cubers, Pi reciters, and human calculators.

The assembly definitely expanded what classroom Maths is thought as and began the week of problems and puzzles with a positive, competitive and growth mind set.

Maths Quiz

Key Stage 5 students started the online quiz on Tuesday 27th February, with 12 students. Their questions were closely related to the topics they study in Mathematics at Years 12 and 13.

The historical aspect of the questions for this Key Stage was based on the mathematicians

Leonhard Euler and Abraham de Moivre and their contributions. The quiz was conducted by Mr. Harishan and it was won by the team that consisted of Tharun, Darren and Dinindu.

There were 45 students from Years 10 and 11 contested between 15 teams on Wednesday February 2018 using the online platform Kahoot. The quiz consisted on 15 questions related to the topics they learn in years 10 and 11 and the birth details and contributions of Leonhard Euler that they had to learn about. The quiz was conducted by Mr. Bala and it was won by the team that consisted of Janith, Kayyis and Priyanka.

It was great to see around 63 students taking part in Key Stage 3 Maths Quiz which was conducted on Wednesday 28th February 2018. We had to cancel the first quiz due to some technical error and it was conducted again on Friday 9th March 2018. It consisted of 15 questions from the topics they learn in Key Stage 3 and the contributions of the Mathematician Heron of Alexandria that they had to learn about. The

quiz was conducted in both the computer labs simultaneously by Mr. Naleem and Mr.Thisara it was won by the team consisted of Sharuni Silva, SuYeon Lee AND Rithesh Kithudasa

Treasure Hunt

Mathematical Treasure Hunts are a fantastic way to engage the students in meaningful way to consolidate understanding of a topic. It never ceases to amaze us how much a little competition can bring to life the most lethargic and reluctant of students and a race against time around the Mathematics corridor to find all the correct answers certainly did that. It was a group event in pairs conducted during lunch break for Key Stage 3 on Monday 26th February, Key Stage 4 on Tuesday 27th and Key Stage 5 on Wednesday 28th February 2018. The competition was organized by Ms. Madhuka and the winners of the competition are for Key Stage 3 Yushane and Kiran, for Key Stage 4 Janith and Theruni and for Key Stage 5 it was Indu and Tenara.

Rubik’s Cube Challenge

This new challenge was added to this year’s Maths Week. It is strongly believed that new and challenging exercises are beneficial to a person. There is no secret trick. It’s just a method that they need to learn and master. It’s not complicated and anyone can learn it. It increases the capacity to think in different situations and the best part about the game is that it doesn’t give you any clue to solve the cube. There is no luck involved; it’s purely their skills at play.

We had some amazing cubers participated it the challenge and it was great to see Aaryan of year 9A won the competition with 23.35 seconds, Huiseok of year 9C came second position with 39.47 seconds and Shane of year 9D won the third position with 45.53 seconds. There are other two students Hari Jashwanth and Danuk Udagama finished within 1minute time. We hope there will be many other students who will beat our school records in the coming years. It was Ms. Hemamali who organized the Rubik’s Cube challenge competition for this year.

Sudoku Championship

Sudoku is a game of logic, problem solving and spotting patterns – it’s a true “brain game” that helps stimulate people’s cognitive abilities and gives the satisfaction of accomplishing a difficult puzzle. Not only playing Sudoku is interesting but it helps to increase our sense of time. We will learn how to make a decision and take an action with less hesitation. It also helps in improving our patience and concentration. This was a new game for 2018 Maths week and it was conducted in Key Stage 3 and a combined challenge for Key Stage 4 and 5. There were many students who took part in this Championship and Ayame Iwata from year 8C won the championship from the Key Stage 3 category and from Key Stage 4 and 5 categories, it was Chanya Gajanaike of 12 A who won the competition. Mr. Thisara and Ms.Chandanie were the organizers for this competition.

Pi Bee Competition

The four of the finalists Krrish, Rishika, Deeksha and Onlei kept Key Stages 3 and 4 students wondering as to how they were able to remember and recall a vast number of digits of the Mathematical constant Pi on Tuesday 27th of February at the finals. This year’s winner is Deeksha Udagedara of Year 8D. She broke her own last year’s record set of 753 digits and Deeksha was able to recite 1561 digits of Pi. The second position is secured by Rishika Senevirathne of year 7C also broke last year’s record and she was able to recite 1074 digits of pi. The judges Mr. Naleem, Mr. Kevin and Ms. Madhuka had the arduous task of carefully checking the superfast recitation by the students.

Deeksha has placed 94th in World Pi Ranking List by pushing the current 94th ranker Marko ratkovin of USA to 95th place and Rishika is in 126th rank by beating the current ranker Ikenna Ogbogu of USA.

Mathematics Exhibition

The Mathematics Exhibition helps students to express themselves through attractive models. The demonstration value of models makes them more appealing. The visitors can appreciate and remember Mathematical facts more clearly. The demonstrator can think more of the model and the concept behind it, while interacting and may draw new explanation or result. The students, who lost interest in Mathematics due to its abstract nature, change their attitude after understanding the concepts in a concrete way. The appreciation from visitors and teachers, has inspired them to think and work with self confidence.

There were more than 200 Mathematics models exhibited covering different topics from all Key Stages. It was great to see that all the students were able to explain the concepts in a deeper way. Students did the exhibits in a groups of 2 or 3. It was evident that many innovative ideas were exhibited through different models. We were happy to see many parents and Junior School Year 6 students who visited the exhibition.

As Cambridge Learners our students welcome new challenges and meet them innovatively, resourcefully, creatively and imaginatively. Certain qualities that are nurtured by Mathematics are power of reasoning, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving ability and even effective communication skills. They are keen to learn new skills and are receptive to new ideas. They work well independently but also with others. It is important for all students to see Maths Week as another great opportunity to explore and learn new mathematics beyond the confines of a classroom. The collaborative work and the enthusiasm will make it another great successful Maths week next year. We are looking forward to see many more innovative ideas for Maths Week 2019.

The Mathematics Team

(All Photos from this event can be viewed on the School Flickr Site)