A fun-filled mathematical trail
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Heymath.com organised a mathematical trail at Dakshina Chitra connecting the subject to art, culture and history. A report.
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"Such an event will enhance team skills of students in a multicultural atmosphere."
WORKING IT OUT: School students from India and Singapore at the mathematical trail.
For all the eight teams, consisting of six students from four different schools, from Chennai and Singapore, it was a wonderful learning experience on November 1, at Dakshina Chitra, near Chennai.
The theme for the trail was `Connecting mathematics to art, history and culture'. The students were given five mathematical problems to solve. The questions were put up in different heritage buildings at the centre. The teams also had to pen down their interesting observation of the five different heritage buildings that they visit. All this in 45 minutes.
PSBB Higher Secondary School (KK Nagar and Nungambakkam), Vidya Mandir (Mylapore), St. Joseph's Institution and Methodist Girls' School (both from Singapore) were the schools that participated in the event.
The concept and questions for the mathematical trail were formulated by Clemence Gallimard, computer science graduate from Cambridge and part of HeyMath, the organisers of the event. The fastest team with most correct answers and good observations of the heritage buildings were adjudged winners. The Models team won the trail.
In tune with the theme, the students were asked mathematical questions linked with culture and art. For example, the students were asked to draw a pattern with a rotational symmetry of order 5 at Chettiar House, and the example given was a rangoli pattern.
While the Indian students were familiar with rangoli, the Singaporean students were familiar with the concept of rotational symmetry. So together they were able to solve the problem posed to them.
At Weavers House, the students had to answer the following question: "A man can weave a Kanchipuram Sari at a rate of 12 minutes per centimetre. Knowing that a sari is six metres long, how long does it take, in hours, for him to weave an entire sari?"
After the trail, the students participated in the lecture demonstration by yoga practitioner and teacher Ravi Shankar of Yoga Nidhi. He explained to the students in simple terms, the geometrical shapes in yogic postures.
Nirmala Sankaran, co-founder of heymath.com, a Chennai-based e-learning company, says that "Such an event will enhance team skills of students in a multicultural atmosphere. An online project involving these students will also be taken up later this year. It is also our attempt to network schools in India with schools in Singapore."
"We at HeyMath are trying to make mathematics learning fun. Our message is that math is cool. Our animated visuals make abstract concepts clear to students. Mathematical concepts can be easily and beautifully explained to students of class five to 10. We focus on self-learning too" says Sheela Shankar, training and implementations manager, heymath.com.
HeyMath memberships are available for institutions and individuals. The platform also has lesson plans and assessment modules for teachers.
"In fact, some school teachers in Singapore allot 20 per cent marks for students' online work in heymath," informs Ms. Shankar.
Earlier, the event started off with a cultural programme by the school students. The students of Vidya Mandir gave a demonstration of rhythmic patterns in Mridhangam and the students of PSBB visualised the mathematical concept of locus property in a dance. The students from Singapore sang a song in praise of their motherland.
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