World Maths Day was launched in March 2007 with the aim of using education and the internet combined, to unite school students around the globe and to set a world record by answering more than 10 million maths related questions in 48 hours.
Three years later, the 2009 event attracted a total of 2,001,570 participants from 204 countries with the total number of questions answered in 48 hours being an amazing 452,681,681! This year, Johannesburg will carry the torch as it has been awarded the prestigious title to host this year’s World Maths Day to be held on 3 March 2010.
The actual challenge commences the moment it is 3 March 2010 on the International Date Line and concludes 48 hours later, when it is no longer 3 March anywhere else in the world. The World Maths Day competition is hosted by the team behind Mathletics, the world’s largest online global mathematics learning site, designed to help students improve their mathematics. The challenge is open to school going as well as home schooling individuals. The school prizes will be awarded at the end of the competition.
During the competition, students get 60 seconds in which to answer as many mental arithmetic questions as possible and one point is scored for every correct answer. The level of difficulty of the questions varies according to age.
Registration for the competition is free and opens on 1 February 2010. Learners then get a chance to practice on the site for the month of February as a build up to the actual day. What the students need to do is to click on the world maths day site and register. Teachers can also download free posters and promotional material from the site. This will be broadcasted live with South African footage from 1 February 2010.
In South Africa, the person to be contacted for World Maths Day is:
Rob Masefield at Mathletics@iafrica.com
Issued by: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government
10 February 2010
Source: Department of Education, Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.education.gpg.gov.za/)
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