FUNniv celebrates math contest winners
- Tiffany Head | June 18, 2015
First
Nation students competed against each other across the country in a
math competition called the Wiseman
Mathematics contest.
The contest is a great way for students to showcase their math skills. The initiative of the Wiseman mathematics contest was designed to motivate young students to learn math in a competitive environment.
Chief Kahkewistahaw First Nation School excelled in the contest and celebrated the achievements of grade 4 to 6 students. The grade 5 class received one of the four Elder Ken Goodwill Memorial Awards for scoring the highest GPA of 89.6%.
Principal Evan Taypotat says he always gives assemblies for sports and other achievements at special events; this is the first time they gave an assembly to celebrate math accomplishments.
“I am extremely proud as we actually gave awards for something in math, something that has never happened before and it shows we bear fruit for our hard work,” he said.
Colleen Bobb, the math teacher for grades k-5, says the students studied hard and were very motivated by the competition.
“They were pretty excited! They kept asking did you hear anything, especially since it was our first time trying it and when we found out we had done fairly well on it,” said Bobb.
They studied for a good month before doing the test in December and sending the tests out in January. She says in the beginning of the year they were doing pretty well, but with the competition they improved greatly.
“I believe there were major improvements, though some still struggle. But I overall believe we have done a good job preparing the students for the next grade,” said Bobb.
They plan on entering the contest next year to see if they have improved from this recent competition.
The competition has also shed light on the new pilot project the Chief Kahkewistahaw School had put up in effect this past year.
The set up is quite unique, as the elementary students only have one math teacher. The middle grade and the high school students also have their own separate math teachers who only teach math during the school year.
“We found a lot of the teachers were not as good in math or strong as they needed to be. We found grades would fluctuate, where grades would drop or go up. So you’re going to see the effect that it has on their math production,” said Taypotat.
“We are assured that the kids will get a real strong math teacher,” said Taypotat. “It’s what our kids need to be proficient and carry on and be successful in the western society.”
It has shown to be successful as they reaped the rewards by having the grade 4 to 6 accept awards for their high achievements in the Wiseman mathematics contest.
This year, approximately 800 students from Grades 4 to 6 representing 31 First Nations schools from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario registered in the contest.
Related story: Saskatchewan students excel in national math contest
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