Calculated bid to make maths more fun finds winning formula online

Published on Tuesday 9 March 2010 20:55

MATHS on a cold, wet Monday morning was once a horror feared by many a pupil. Repetitive times-tables with on-the-spot mental arithmetic was enough to strike terror into a primary pupil's heart.

This potentially ingrained fear of the maths has perhaps led to a culture in Scotland where adults have no shame in admitting they are "rubbish" at the subject. An admission which would appall those in other countries such as China and India where mathematical ability is esteemed.

Recent reports have suggested primary teachers themselves may not have the specialist knowledge to teach older pupils in maths and sciences, compounding pupils' lack of confidence. And international comparisons show Scotland is falling behind other countries in such basic subjects.

However, at some Scottish schools, youngsters are so keen to tackle maths problems, they are doing extra work at home.

This change of heart is down to a phenomenon often blamed for children's disaffection with education and short attention spans – computer games.

Indeed, last week a record number of children across the world took part in an online maths challenge.

Around 1,000 schools in Scotland took part in the Mathletics website challenge as part of World Maths Day last Wednesday. On the day itself 1,133,000 pupils took part globally from 56,000 schools in 235 countries.

The site, which is used throughout the year by around three million pupils in more than 10,000 schools, was created by the Australian educational firm 3P Learning. It provides a series of animated problems for pupils to solve depending on their age group and ability.

Youngsters can compete in real time against each other and against the clock to see who can answer the most questions in their category correctly.

During the World Maths Day event, children received a point for every question they answered correctly in 60 seconds. The more tests they took – up to a maximum of 500 over the 48-hour the contest – the more marks they gained. To add to the element of competition, each live test was sat by several children, with all their scores visible on screen as the minute ran down.

The 48-hour period was chosen to give children in all time zones a chance to compete, with gold medals available to the top competitors.

The competition started in 2007 after a trial contest between children in England and Australia proved popular. It has attracted more entrants every year since its launch, with competitors correctly answering 452,681,681 questions last year.

Schools in Scotland are increasingly seeing the benefits of the website and the competition.

Two years ago, Denny High in Falkirk introduced the software and in 2009 the school made it to the national finals of the Scottish Enterprising Mathematics Competition at Glasgow University and won the Scottish Heats of the Mathematics Challenge.

Julia Swan, director of education at Falkirk Council, has said: "This partnership will enable us to effectively develop the numeracy strand for Curriculum for Excellence using what is a very innovative and effective approach to engaging young people in maths."

MSP Margaret Mitchell was so impressed she submitted a motion to parliament saying the event provided an "excellent forum" for Scots to cultivate maths and urging schools to get involved with World Maths Day.

She said: "It was terrific to both see and hear how enthusiastic the pupils are about maths as they engage and pit their skills against other pupils worldwide as they appear on the screen.

"Furthermore their teachers are delighted at the increase in their numeric skills achieved while having real fun."

After this year's Maths Day event on the website, the top performing pupil in Scotland and the whole of the UK was 11-year-old Sharan Maiya from Hamilton College.

Proud mum Sue said of her son: "He's always been very good at maths, he's good in studies, in music and golf. He knew the times tables by heart by around three-years-old because in the car I used to sing them to him. By five he knew up to his ten times tables."

Linda Aitken, primary seven teacher and head of the P5-7 department at Sharan's school, said: "We are very pleased with Sharan's achievements.

"All of our children in the junior school have done very well competing in the world maths day.

"Charlie Greener, who is only eight years old, came 98th in the world, and Olivia Greener, 11, is one of two UK ambassadors representing Scotland.

"She came second in Scottish maths challenge but gave up her ambitions in the world leader board in order to promote World Maths Day."

The school is fortunate to have a secondary wing with maths specialists to draw on who work closely with the primary.

Mrs Aitken added: "But we do feel that the Mathletics online maths has really helped the children because they can work on their maths activities at home and the children really enjoy being able to do these online activities.

"We can see it is really making the children enthusiastic about maths."

Ian Smith, national manager for the firm behind Mathletics said: "Sharan was the top Scot and top Brit in his age group and overall.

"Mathletics has now gone worldwide: it's absolutely huge in Australia, moved in to New Zealand and it's now in the UK and in its infancy in Scotland.

"It really engages and motivates pupils. They just love getting involved and play live mathematics and they can play against each across the world or against their peers in their own school."

Sharan said: "I didn't believe it when I realised I had won."

He says he was spurred on by knowing it was a competition: "At first I was nervous then it became fun and it was so intense. It was more like a game rather than work. I enjoyed maths before but this made me enjoy it even more."

Sharan hopes to be an entrepreneur when he grows up. With solid maths skills, that's more than possible.