Discover Science and Maths Award 2016

LearnStorm was an online Maths challenge which ran for 9 weeks from January 29th to April 1st. Students from fourth to sixth class participated in the competition. Children were encouraged to log into their Khan Academy accounts and earn individual points as well as points for their school. A cup was awarded every three weeks. This consisted of weekly challenges such as mind-set and maths marathon. If you succeeded in those activities you were chosen to go to the final event.

Mindset was a reflection of the theme. In the reflection you had three activities. It had a video of a celebrity talking about the topic, a digital poster and a mini questionnaire. For the first week the theme was you can do anything and John Legend was talking about the topic and there was a mind map of brainpower concept. For the last mindset you had to write a letter to a future Learnstormer about your experience and how you can help them.

The other activity was a maths marathon. You had to spend at least sixty minutes learning maths. In these sixty minutes you are eligible to compete for 1st, 2nd or 3rd, you could only place if you were in the top hundred in Ireland. I came 68th, 36th and 13th in Ireland during those weeks. These competitions were divided into mastery and hustle but I only placed in mastery. Mastery was when you got full marks in a mastery challenge that you practiced for. Hustle was when you got points for your perseverance on something you found difficult. You didn't have to do challenges for it.

I have been chosen to go forward to the final event of the competition which will take place on Saturday 30th of April in DCU. There we will be a little prize giving ceremony on the day, followed by a small party.

Róisín Tigerford
Sixth Class
Ms Bohan