Math contest 27/03/2015

Danny was given a test on the first day of school in January and was found to be eligible for the country wide Belgian Maths  contest and also placed on the Maths  team. He came home and said to me, " mom, my maths teacher said she is going to email you." Uh oh I thought, usually not good when a teacher reaches out...but was I wrong! His teacher let me know that he is being placed on the Maths Team which is representing St. John's at a competition in Toulouse, France in March! WHAT?!  Thank you BAS for a great challenging curriculum and great foundation, and Jer for passing on the math gene, we all know it's not from me! The team practiced every Monday at lunchtime. During the Weekend of the 27th to 29th March 2015, the International School of Toulouse, France hosted the the ISMTF Middle school Mathematics competition. This is an annual event for students aged 14 and under. The team left from school early Friday morning and flew to France, returning late Sunday night. Danny had a tremendous time. The weekend kicked off with a scavenger hunt through the city of Toulouse with his teammates and teacher, followed by dinner and evening with his host family.

 On Saturday morning, competition began in earnest. Teams of three went through several rounds of competition solving problems with only the aid of pencil and paper. This is a challenging competition and not for the faint hearted. Any correct solutions found are to be celebrated!

After a well earned lunch, they had the privilege of hearing a visiting author, Simon Singh, talk about his book Fermat's last theorem with great passion. Obviously this is story of some local significance! All this before taking off to see the new Areoscopia museum and the Final Assembly line of the A380. Danny really found this to be a highlight of the weekend, the final assembly building is the largest building in Europe! They were given a tour, free hats and loads of inspiration. After another night with host families students reconvened on Sunday morning for another contest. this time science, technology and were maths combined. Students had a brief amount of time to build a machine with certain capabilities which would then be tested to score points.

Maths problems had to be solved to get the parts they needed.An awards ceremony took place where 1st prize went to the International School of Lausanne for the Saturday competition and then everyone began their long journey home! The flight for the St.Johns team is only an hour, and Jerry picked up a group from the airport. It is always fun to have your child return with a "high" from MATH! 

Ps. Danny's team did not place...but they have high hopes for next year!