As a parent teacher, I started helping academically gifted kids on campus, an hour each week. Objective was to promote their love of math, encourage and establish positive problem solving attitude! Easy to state but hard to implement. I started composing lecture and worksheets on creative topics like topology, Pascal’s triangle, ancient mathematics, etc. Initially, the breakdown of an hour was 30 minutes of theory followed by 20 minutes of problem solving. We left 10 minutes for housekeeping.
It took me only a couple of sessions to realize, kids were not looking for the lecture/theory. They would rather figure things out , more hands on. As soon as I would pass on a worksheet, I would see their faces glow. They were looking forward to a challenge, definitely something out of the ordinary, something they haven’t heard off. Now, considering their access to internet, books, mobile devices and gifted parents, you can relate to difficulty level of my task.
I decided to be innovative and bring match sticks to create riddles for equation balance similar to mathemagic. Working with match sticks was so much fun ! Another mom brought 2D printed layouts for regular polyhedrons. Kids then cut and formed 3D models of each. They absolutely went ga ga over this activity. We designed a Q/A session following the model building activity, such as, why cube is the most popular form of DICE?
As I got their attention, we opened new doors to creative hands on math. As kids expectations raised and so was our responsibilities. I gathered few more passionate parents. They poured countless hours in making this experience great for kids. We taught how to develop algorithm for something as simple as making a PBJ, write a function when input to an outcome is given, prove a theorem using basic math operations. We would prepare for 4-6 hours of material and they would drain us in just one. Soon, we found them craving for more.
We knew they are doing good, but we were also looking for a measure. I started looking at logical reasoning , critical thinking for curriculum and testing related to such. I built a short list of multiple websites, blogs, books and of course my most trusted co-parents to help choose competitive math exams. While there are plenty available resources, building a training program is a challenge. Good thing, I was not alone. Many parents thought bringing exams would help kids validate and we decided to offer assessment, tryouts and Olympiads, AMCs on campus.