The competition was very much a team event with the emphasis on students being able to cooperate, work together and think laterally to solve problems. In addition to the more formal mathematical part of the competition, students had the opportunity to:
1) Design, build and launch a model rocket
2) Take part in the "Around Wengen Chase", involving route planning to reach as many stations as possible and solve the problems they found there.
3) Construct a Geodesic Dome. This demanded good teamwork and negotiation skills where they had to construct a 4m diameter dome taking into consideration the best mathematical shapes to facilitate this.
Students also attended a gala dinner and listened to an informative talk, given by Alan West (Exscitec UK) on how we can track and measure energy efficiency and climate change.
We felt that our students got a lot from their three day experience as not only will their mathematical abilities have been stretched, but they were stimulated by socialising with other like-minded students.
Our students came a respectable 12th (A Team) and 18th (B Team) out of a total of 41 teams. Ji Eun was part of the team that won the construction task. They are the youngest group we have entered and we hope that they will like to be considered for the competition next year. They all contributed well to their team and gained a lot from the experience.
We, Mrs Eastwood and Mr Warmington were proud to accompany them on this event and we enjoyed getting to know them outside the school environment. They are a credit to their school and their families.
Team Participants: Hyemin Ryu, Rachel Han, Ji Eun Oh, Youjung Ahn, Filip Baranec and Ivan Danilov.