Kids compete in Math Kangaroo Contest

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This article was published 21/03/2016 (3550 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Twenty primary school students spent much of the first day of spring willingly working on math equations in a dark basement classroom in the John R. Brodie Science Centre at Brandon University.

The kids were the first-ever Brandonites to compete in the Canadian Math Kangaroo Contest — an international competition aimed at making math fun and accessible to students worldwide.

It’s working. This year, the test is offered in at least 50 countries, with more than six million students participating annually.

“The lady said that they had over 4,700 registrants in Canada alone,” said BU Prof. Gautam Srivastava, who said the day is a good way to get young students familiar with the university.

He was asked by the chair of BU’s mathematics and computer science department, Jeff Williams, to set up the contest locally. It’s the first time the Kangaroo contest has been offered in Manitoba outside of Winnipeg.

The contest is available in French and English in six different levels: Grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12. The contest is self-guided, but Srivastava said subsequent years may include pre-test training sessions.

Once the students complete the test, Srivastava will enter their answers into an online database. He expects the test results back by April 20.

“It’s funny. I’m always dealing with older kids and seeing little Grade 1 kids struggle over math programs. It’s kind of cute,” he said.

Natasha Jones, a 13-year-old Grade 7 student at Linden Lanes School, was one of the contestants.

The test was more difficult than math class at school, she reported.

“It was pretty difficult, but I thought it would be hard. It’s supposed to be a math competition, and if everybody got it right, then it wouldn’t be that fair,” she said.

Jones liked having a Srivastava on hand for assistance.

“You could tell he was a professor because he has different ways to explain it. If you didn’t get it one way, he’d explain two or three other ways.”

“She was a little bit nervous about how she would do but we talked about a strategy for how to get through it — if you don’t know a question, skip it and come back to it later,” said Natasha’s mother, Barb .

Jones thinks she wants to be a scientist when she gets older.

So does eight-year-old Logan Torrance, one of the youngest entrants from the Wheat City.

And why did he pick math on a beautiful, sunny Sunday?

“Before I came here, I really was interested in math and I was really excited when my mom told me about it. I’m definitely coming back next year,” he said.

“Without math, it would be really hard for the world,” the Riverheights School student added.

Srivastava, a computer science professor, agrees.

“I think there’s a need to encourage mathematics, computer science. That’s the way everything’s going — technology is taking over. They use these smartphones, iPhones and all this stuff. They can learn this stuff and learn how to implement applications for that. I don’t think they actually understand that, so stuff like (the contest) will definitely help them down the road,” he said.

» tbateman@brandonsun.com

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