Issue 3 Friday 23.05.2008The official SIMC newsletter

PIGRAPHPIGRAPHWHAT’S ON TODAYBy Lee Shu En

Experience State-of-the-Art TechnologyIf you’re not savvy to the term “remote imaging, sensing and processing”, you will be, at the end of your trip to CRISP today. CRISP in fact is an acronym for Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing. It is one of five places that SIMC participants will be visiting this afternoon. The others include the College of Science at the Nanyang Technological University and three of the research institutes under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, namely the Data Storage Institute, the Institute for Infocomm Research and the Institute of High Performance Computing.

A Walk on the Wild SideBrace yourselves for a walk on the wild side amidst hyenas, jackals and rhinos tonight!

Tonight, SIMC participants, students and educators alike will visit the award-winning Night Safari, the world’s first ever night-time zoo. Spanning 40 hectares, the Night Safari offers visitors the unique experience of exploring and seeing jungle wildlife at night either on foot or by tram (watch out for the brief ride through the marshlands!). It houses 1,040 animals of 120 different species, including some threatened species, in 59 exhibits.

Bargains Galore at the Great Singapore SaleThe Night Safari is only one reason why Singapore is a popular tourist spot in Southeast Asia. The city-state also lures shopaholics with its annual island-wide sale. Today is the start of the eight-week Great Singapore Sale which promises fat discounts (up to 70% off the original retail price) and a wide array of treats. Start your shopping spree at Orchard Road and Marina Bay and then continue your exploration to the mega-mall VivoCity. Fret not if you feel the day seems too short for you to indulge yourself. Major shopping malls extend their shopping hours till late every weekend during the Great Singapore Sale, and there is always the 24-hour shopping complex, Mustafa Centre, to fall back on.

A Taste of the Arts The month-long Singapore Arts Festival 2008 kicks off today. Internationally acclaimed artists from 21 countries will be presenting 27 music, dance and theatre productions that will tantalise the senses. This year, the festivity will

be brought close to home for many locals by the buskers and professional foreign

and Singaporean performers who will perform right at the heart of four hawker

centres over the four weekends of the Festival. You might want to catch the

first performance at the Tampines Round Market & Food Centre this

weekend from 9am to 11am!

Principals’ Conference Ends on a High Note By Vijay Ramakrishnan T.

If you were to apply for a place in Thailand’s Mahidol Wittayanusorn School,

you’d have to be among the cream of the crop to get accepted. That’s because the school only takes in 240 of its 50,000 yearly applicants, or a mere 0.48% of

all aspirants!

This was just one of the interesting facts revealed at the Principals’ Conference held in conjunction with the SIMC. The conference, held at NUS High School’s conference room, was a platform for educators from top institutes worldwide to network and share about their schools.

Dr Hang Kim Hoo, principal of NUS High School of Math & Science, started the ball rolling with a warm welcome address to all the attendees. Taking the opportunity for a bit of salesmanship, his cheery talk

included an appeal to all the educators to send representatives to take part in future

Singapore Mathematical Olympiads.

Subsequently, Associate Professor Suwattana Eamoraphan who is Advisor

to the Math department of the prestigious Mahidol Wittayanusorn School gave a

brief introduction of her school. Some of the educators were startled by her presentation of the school’s stringent admission criteria and the miniscule percentage of successful

applicants. Those who do get accepted into the school get free laptops and boarding.

A student delegate from the Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School in Australia also introduced her school. Established in 1905 with the motto ‘Potens Sui’ (which means self-discipline and mastery in Latin), the school has a well established music programme and offers a multitude of subjects ranging from Philosophy to Latin. It also emphasizes co-curricular activities (CCAs). Emphasizing this, the delegate pointed out that her school even has a Bollywood Club as a CCA! Lastly, a delegate from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics shared about the various contests held in the state of North Carolina. Like Dr Hang, he appealed to all the educators to visit America to attend some of these competitions.

Enthused by the possibility of further collaborations between the schools, Dr Hang expressed high hopes that our students would be able to benefit from the close partnership between the schools.

Sudoku Challenge

2       7          6   1     5              7        6     3    3         6    4     1              1   8      8     9        6         5  

Answers to Yesterday’s Sudoku Challenge

9 3 7 6 4 1 5 2 88 4 2 5 7 3 9 1 61 5 6 2 8 9 3 7 47 9 3 8 1 6 4 5 26 2 4 3 5 7 8 9 15 1 8 4 9 2 7 6 33 6 9 7 2 4 1 8 54 7 5 1 6 8 2 3 92 8 1 9 3 5 6 4 7

Educators Get Glimpse of Math at NUSBy Srinath Reddy The visiting educators were invited to tour the Department of Mathematics at the National University of Singapore (NUS) yesterday afternoon. Associate Professor Goh Say Song from the Department introduced their various activities as well as undergraduate and graduate offerings, specifically the department’s Double Major Programme and the Joint Degree Programme with overseas institutions such as the Australian National University.

Associate Professor Wong Yan Loi, another faculty member of the Department who has trained national teams for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), enumerated the selection procedures for the team and the rigorous training of selected members. Several eyebrows were raised when the educators learnt that members of the Singapore IMO team trained from nine to five daily from Monday to Saturday for six weeks prior to the IMO.

Among other things shared, A/P Goh highlighted that the Department has a significant proportion of international students. The number of international students at the Department seems likely to grow. Russian educator Mr Iakov Abramson, for one, said he would recommend NUS to his students at the School for Science Gifted Students “Intellectual”.

The Art of Teaching (and Learning) MathematicsBy Soong-Tan Seck Cher, Koh Li Chen and Stephanie Chew

SIMC Participants Gearing Up for On-Site Challenge PresentationBy Annabeth Leow and Cheung Pik Yan

On-Site Challenge Preparation Going Well; Participants Enjoying SIMC Experience

The On-Site Challenge question was released yesterday to much anticipation, and now that they have something definite to work with, SIMC participants are hard at work trying to solve the mathematical problem. Most participants agree that the process of solving the On-Site Challenge is a tough one, with Cheng Chen of Raffles Girls’ School (Team 2) admitting that she stayed up till two in the morning to read up on various methodologies which might help her team. Pham Phan Hong Anh, from the Hanoi University of Science High School for Gifted Pupils (Team 1), also mentions having to work overnight, though acknowledging that the Challenge question is indeed an “interesting” one worth sacrificing sleep for.

Many groups did research on the internet to find algorithms that might help them conceptualise their solution, and held group discussions late into the night; students with English as their second language reported that they overcame the language barrier by first translating the Challenge question into their mother tongues. More of an obstacle, apparently, is what they see as a lack of time, especially since participants only have a matter of days to come up with a response to the On-Site Challenge, as opposed to the month they were given for the Pre-Site Challenge; time-management is now a major factor for the teams, although some believe that since they can now give their undivided attention to the On-Site Challenge, they are better poised to tackle the Challenge.

As to whether the solution for the On-Site Challenge is less demanding than that for the Pre-Site Challenge, not everyone can agree. For Hong Anh, the On-Site Challenge seems difficult because of the intensive use of technological knowledge. However, Rieko Kuwano, of Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School (Team 2) – one of Japan’s Super Science Schools since 2002 – feels that it is easier than the Pre-Site Challenge.

Despite taking home the First Award and earning a Special Mention for the Israel Arts and Science Academy in the Pre-Site Challenge, giving further credence to his school’s reputation as a premier institution for gifted youths, Tal Malinovitch is somewhat conservative about his school’s chances of winning the On-Site Challenge. He describes his team as ”not confident [they’ll] remain winning” because of the slow rate at which they were making progress. “Our previous idea came quite fast,” he notes, “but now we’re stuck.”

On the bright side, though, he believes that his team is a creative one, a trait which will stand them in good stead at the presentation of the solution to the On-Site Challenge tomorrow.

Even though the team members did not clinch an award in the Pre-Site Challenge, the team from Myers Park High School – one of the United States’ top hundred high schools according to a Newsweek feature – is now more confident. Rather than being discouraged by their showing in the Pre-Site Challenge, they were “more motivated, especially after seeing what everyone has done” to better their performance. They find the Pre-Site Challenge a great help in pushing them to produce better results, telling student journalists that while the Pre-Site Challenge requires applying “a different type of solution” from the On-Site Challenge, the fact that they fall in the “same genre of problems” helps in crafting possible solutions.

In fact, they add, the Pre-Site Challenge has reminded them to adopt a more competitive mindset on top of the fun they are deriving from attempting the On-Site Challenge.

T h o u g h busy at their laptops or engaged in animated discussions with team-mates, participants are generally enthusiastic about competing in the SIMC and also about their stay in Singapore. The Myers Park High School representatives joke with one another about their visit to Singapore: ”I’ve never been to Singapore before,” laughs Roshan Kumar Sadanani, before pointing to a team-mate and joking, “but this is his first time out of the country!” Coming from a large country, they acknowledge being amazed by how, in Singapore, they “got to see a lot of the city in a short time”.

Meanwhile, Zhao Jingkang, from Beijing No. 4 High School, seconds what the Myers Park High School team and various others have commented about our city-state: “The food is good,” Jingkang says, “but the weather is too hot for me, [for one] who comes from Beijing City.” However,

on his background knowledge of quadratic expressions.

Professor Harold Reiter then spoke of his motivation behind the initiation of Charlotte Teachers’ Circle to build a community of learning amongst middle school mathematics teachers in Charlotte. In the beginning, most tended to see mathematical problems as a mere set of exercises to apply algorithms and generate correct answers to, not recognizing that problems, in fact, do not have straight and clear-cut answers, and need input from a group to tease out whatever information needed to solve the problem.

Finally, at a separate session, Dr Tay Eng Guan from the National Institute of Education gave his presentation, “Practical Paradigm”, in which he posited that the Singapore mathematical education system focuses primarily on the learning of heuristics and not on the content of mathematics at a deeper level. He told of his experience in setting up a problem-solving module together with his colleagues, which was then implemented in an independent programme school in 2005 and 2006. Drawing on Polya’s model for problem solving, he came up with a module which, though mathematical, is similar to a science practical, and so he called it a math practical module. The module produced satisfactory results among students.

The topical differences notwithstanding, the general consensus was that the process of teaching mathematics should be student-centred. As Mr Harter from

the Buncombe County schools aptly said, the point is “to focus on learning

[and] we need to see ourselves as in the learning business [although]

sometimes we see ourselves as in the teaching business”.

Jingkang and Australian Science and Mathematics School student

Kwon Yee Kyeong are in concord when it came to the SIMC experience.

They express their admiration for NUS High School’s hosting of the SIMC and

the multi-cultural atmosphere of Singapore, and are appreciative of the local Student Liaison Officers’ helpful and friendly attitudes as well.

Though the participants have been working hard to make their schools and countries proud, it is nonetheless gratifying to note that they have managed to find some time to enjoy their SIMC experience and their time spent in Singapore. NUS High School wishes every team all the best of luck in its performance at tomorrow’s presentation of the On-Site Challenge solutions.

Educators from around the world found a platform to share their insights into effective methods of teaching mathematics during the teachers’ sharing sessions yesterday. The topics covered ranged from mathematics software to state-wide education systems.

Several educators chose to expound on curriculum and policy issues.

Ms Jane Garvey, principal of academically selective Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School in Melbourne, said her school believes in enrichment rather than acceleration. The success of that policy is seen in the fact that the school’s graduates are the top performers in academics in the state of Victoria.

Mr Suwat Sriyotee, a teacher at the Mahidol Wittayanusorn School in Thailand, shared his experience of using English-language textbooks but teaching in the vernacular. He said that this policy could be effective in places where English is not widely spoken.

A three-member teaching team from the Buncombe County Schools in North Carolina gave a detailed presentation about attempts to overcome the numerous obstacles involved in educating 26,000 students from 40 schools across the state. Mathematics Specialist Mr Randy Harter explained that their school system was “dealing with a wide spectrum of students, not only [the] gifted”, but also students of varying abilities and interest in learning. Mr Harter spoke of a need for “emphasis on problem-solving in the curriculum” and proposed a multi-pronged approach based on problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections and representation to teach mathematics effectively, while bearing in mind that “our goal is not to simply cover curriculum, but to optimise learning”.

Other speakers talked about the use of models and other tools for the effective teaching of Mathematics.

Ms Glenda Mary Romeril, a teacher at Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School, shared about the use of a math computer software, specifically GeoGebra. This allows geometry and graphs to be explored “in a way that enhances visual learning and kinaesthetic learning”.

Mr Philip Alan Rash gave a presentation on “Some Selected Modelling Problems Appropriate for the Precalculus and Calculus Courses”. He gave examples of modelling that are applicable to real-life situations. One example is an optimization problem based on the scheduling of subway trains.

Mr Kim Yong Deok, for his part, presented “Optimal Mesh for Elliptic PDE”. He talked about possible modules for mathematics curricula on topics such as Number Theory, Equation Solving, C++ programming and simultaneous, differential and finite equations.

Given the nature of this mathematical

contest, it was inevitable for some educators to offer ideas about the education of high-ability learners.

Mr Iakov Abramson, a teacher at the School for Science Gifted Students “Intellectual” in Russia, extolled the teaching of pure mathematics. “Math is not about the accumulation of data and facts,” he said. “It is one more means of character building.” He later recounted his experiences of teaching gifted students who gain admission to his school through written tests and, occasionally, math puzzles. He said the latter is a good mode of assessment since Math is a discipline that requires sustained concentration.

Ms Gwee Hwee Ngee, a teacher at Hwa Chong Institution, said her school’s mathematics curriculum caters to the mathematically gifted. The curriculum is engaging and challenging. For instance, instead of asking students to simply solve a problem, the curriculum could ask one to go further by asking how many ways it is possible to solve the said problem. Mr John Goebel then shared about the North Carolina State Mathematics Competitions, where students throughout the state participate in the qualifying rounds, followed by the State Finals and the Comprehensive Finals. Whilst the lower tests parallel the current state curriculum, the comprehensive tests are more challenging, requiring the participants to have much ingenuity and the ability to “pull all their skills together” to answer well.

Next, Dr. Jonathon Stupp from the Israel Arts and Science Academy shared his work on promoting self-learning and making c o n n e c t i o n s t h r o u g h interesting tasks, presented in guided steps for students to work individually. An interesting point of his talk was the conclusion he made from his research that “not every mistake a student makes in mathematics questions is foolishness”. He cited a student who could make c o n n e c t i o n s between a d e f i n i t i o n given in the w o r k s h e e t and the assigned task. However, the student still chose the wrong answer simply because the correct answer did not make sense to him based