Today’s Expeditionary Thursday was our second annual Mathlympics competition between UG Crews! Today was the second annual Mathlympics competition between all the upper grades crews! It was a fantastically complex day dedicated to developing a culture of numeracy at Brooklyn Collaborative. The entire Upper Grades competed in activities which included Free Throw Math, Musical Math, Hour of Code, the Breakout Challenge, and origami crafts. Below are descriptions and photos from each of the thrilling events!
Breakout Challenge
Crews competed in an Escape the Room/Breakout EDU type activity where they were given one hour to complete each task and “Breakout/Escape” (though for safety, they are not truly locked in the rooms!). Students completed a series of riddles and challenges in order to unlock PDFs, physical locks, and a lockbox. Each completed activity was worth 10 points. Unlocking the box was worth 20. The problems inside the lockbox were worth an additional 5 points each, with the potential to earn 40 points before the box, 20 from opening the box and 15 inside the box for a grand total of 75 points!
Hour of Code
The Hour of Code is a global movement that reaches tens of millions of students in 180+ countries by exposing them to coding (hourofcode.com). Students (and crew leaders!) were given a choice of self-guided one-hour modules to choose from in a variety of programming languages. Points for this time were earned based on the percentage of completed modules.
Origami Art Challenge
Crews competed to create the largest amount of neatly folded origami shapes. Points were given based on the level of difficulty of the shape and the amount of each completed figure the entire crew created.
Logic Challenge
Students worked through a series of increasingly-difficult Sudoku and KenKen puzzles. Completed, correctly-solved puzzles earned points. More difficult puzzles earned more points.
Musical Math
Students played “musical chairs,” picking up a math problem from around the room when the music stopped. They solved the problem on the back of the card with their partner and then added it to their crew’s score pile. At the end of the game, crew teachers checked answers against an answer key. Correct answers scored points for their crew!
Free Throw Math
Students mentally solved (no paper!) math problems in order to be able to shoot the basketball. Points were awarded for the number of baskets that were made within the 10 minute round.
Collaborative Math everywhere you looked!
In every crew, students were collaboratively solving math problems. We are crew!
And the winning crew was…
Abby and Brittany’s Grade 12 Crew!!! Major shout out! We can’t wait for Mathlympics again next year! (In the spring, our Lower Grades students will compete in their second annual Mathlympics competition as well, based on the UG model!)
Special thanks to the BCS Parent Teacher Association for sponsoring Mathlympics!