World Maths Day 2008
Posted by schoolspirit on 4 March, 2008
Seems that tomorrow, March 5th, is World Maths Day. All across the globe, school aged children have signed themselves up (or been signed up like my grade - they just don’t know yet!) to compete against each other for a single World day. As long as it is March 5th somewhere in the world, then the online contest will continue. We only found out about it today ourselves, but I reckon it’s a top little idea to really get kids interested in active maths.
Mind you… lots of people already seem to have heard about it. Our Great Southern Land spoke about it last week before I stumbled into her blog, and it seems it’s an annual thing too. Not sure why, but the ICT teacher only heard about it today and fortunately I was on hand to pick up my kids from their computer session to have her talk to me about it. I got her to sign my grade up and they’re going to find out about it tomorrow.
Yep, tomorrow’s March 5th and World Maths Day will have already started, but better late than never, eh? We’ll be able to spend some more time on Thursday as well, as it will still be running until that International Dateline reaches midnight at about 10pm that night. Even better, that’s the day of the rolling half-day teacher strike in our region. As I’m not walking off (for several reasons), our grade will be operating as usual. As the computer teacher won’t be there until lunchtime, our entire maths hour and a half we could probably sit in the computer rooms competing. Turned out okay so far, provided nothing untoward turns up on Thursday.
Might even see if we can sneak in before recess as well… get the most out of it.
To be honest, I’m a little disappointed it’s only running for a single day. I can really see a usefulness for something of this kind running non stop. Maybe not as a competition, but as a website kids from across the globe can simply log in to and match their maths skills against other kids of their own ability levels.
Imagine that! Kids wanting to do their maths homework, and at the same time, their parents happy to let their kids sit in front of a computer!
At least, that’s my view on the possibilities.
Cheers.
