Kangaroo of math

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Kangaroo of Mathematics ( English Mathematical Kangaroo ) is the largest competition for high school students in the world, in which over 50 countries participate. The mathematics competition for pupils in grades 3 to 13 has been internationally oriented since 1995 and takes place annually on the third Thursday in March. According to the organizers, the focus is on the ability to logically combine "clumsy memorization " of formulas is not helpful. In Germany alone, 968,000 students took part in 2019.

Schoolchildren during the 2006 kangaroo

history

The idea for the multiple choice math competition came from Peter O'Holloran, a math teacher from Sydney . In 1978 the test started in Australia with 120,000 students, the evaluation was computer-aided. After a few years, many countries from the South Pacific region also took part.

In the early 1990s, the French math teachers André Deledicq and Jean Pierre Boudine came across the test and decided to hold such a competition in France as well. The test Kangourou de Mathématique was named in honor of the Australian inventors . As the number of participating countries grew steadily, the international association Kangourou sans frontieres (Kangaroo without borders) was founded in the summer of 1994 by delegates from ten countries based in Paris. Since then he has dealt with international coordination and, above all, the preparation of the tasks.

In 1995 the competition was held in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia and Spain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland followed in 1996, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Ukraine in 1997, Austria, Sweden and Croatia in 1999, Venezuela in 2002, the United States of America and Kazakhstan in 2004, Switzerland in 2003, Canada in 2007, Brazil in 2009, 2015 Denmark, 2017 Saudi Arabia, 2019 China and Australia. Although the competition goes back to a mathematics competition in Australia, the country has only been participating in the international "Kangaroo of Mathematics" since 2019.

In Germany the competition is organized by the association Mathematikwettbewerb Kangaroo e. V. , which is based at the Institute for Mathematics at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

execution

Former “reply slip”: Here the school number, name and class as well as the student's answers were noted for the later machine evaluation.

The competition will be held on the 3rd Thursday in March (Germany moved to April 10th in 2008 due to the Easter vacation dates and April 11th in 2013) as a 75-minute exam. In Austria it is held irregularly on a Thursday in March.

The use of a calculator is not permitted in order to encourage problem-solving thinking and not typing into the calculator. Each participant receives 30 tasks (24 for students in 3rd / 4th grade and 5th / 6th grade), divided into ten (or eight) 3, 4 and 5-point tasks. There are five possible answers to each question. If you answer a question correctly, you get the specified number of points, if you answer it incorrectly, a quarter of the possible points is deducted. Not all tasks need to be answered. Unanswered questions do not change the score. There are 30 base points (24 for 3rd / 4th grade and 5th / 6th grade), so that the lowest possible number of points is 0. The highest is 150 or 120. Due to the minus point rule, it makes sense not to tick anything instead of guessing for questions whose answer you don't know. The answers must be ticked on a separate reply slip.

In Germany, the result slips were sent in by the schools until 2011 and automatically evaluated centrally in Berlin . Two to three months later, the participating schools were then sent prizes and certificates. This is still the case in Switzerland .

In Austria and Germany, the results are submitted and evaluated over the Internet . In this way, every school in Austria receives the internal school result immediately. The state and federal winners will be published two to three weeks later. In Germany, school results are communicated after about a week and the prizes are awarded after one to two months.

In 2020, the competition in Germany took place due to the corona pandemic according to internal school regulations. The participants mostly received the tasks from their teachers and were able to submit the solutions online. Schoolchildren in grades 3 to 6 were able to participate online from home via the Snappet platform at the end of April 2020. Due to the lack of competitive conditions, no 1st, 2nd or 3rd prizes were awarded.

To do list in 2019

In contrast to the PISA study , there is no comparison between the results of the individual states or schools.

Prices

In Germany, each participant receives a certificate with name, class and the number of points achieved as well as a brochure with tasks and solutions and a so-called "Prize for All". Around 5 to 6% of the participants receive a 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize. These students are rewarded with logic games, books or other prizes. For the “furthest kangaroo jump” (ie the largest number of consecutive correctly solved tasks), the school winner receives a T-shirt . Furthermore, the most successful students in grades 9 and 10 are invited to international math camps. There are also consolation prizes for each participant who did not win, around one Kubra in 2012 .

In Austria, in addition to internal school prizes, there are award ceremonies at the state and federal level. The five best of each school level are awarded material and cash prizes, certificates and trophies.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mathematics competition Kangaroo eV: Kangaroo der Mathematik eV: number of participants in the competitions. Retrieved April 28, 2020 .
  2. ^ Mathematics competition Kangaroo eV: Kangaroo of Mathematics eV | Chronicle | Packstories. Retrieved September 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Kangaroo of Mathematics online this year at Snappet | Chronicle | Packstories. Retrieved April 28, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Kangaroo of Mathematics online this year at Snappet | Chronicle | Packstories. Retrieved April 28, 2020 .