Summer Camp / en 'Mathletes' in training: Top high school students attend 老司机直播 summer camp to prepare for national math Olympiad /news/training-top-high-school-mathletes-attend-u-t-summer-camp-prepare-national-math-olympiad <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">'Mathletes' in training: Top high school students attend 老司机直播 summer camp to prepare for national math Olympiad</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/michael-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=l8fY94Wf 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/michael-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5YXAHvC- 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/michael-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KRCFBibw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/michael-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=l8fY94Wf" alt="Photo of Michael Liudeng"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-07-31T13:25:51-04:00" title="Wednesday, July 31, 2019 - 13:25" class="datetime">Wed, 07/31/2019 - 13:25</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Michael Liudeng (right) answers problems on a worksheet at math camp at 老司机直播's Bahen Centre for Information Technology (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-staff" hreflang="en">Faculty &amp; Staff</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/mathematics" hreflang="en">Mathematics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/stem" hreflang="en">STEM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/summer-camp" hreflang="en">Summer Camp</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>If there were a&nbsp;<em>Rocky</em>-style training montage for the University of Toronto's&nbsp;math camp, it might involve blackboard problems in circle geometry, inequalities and modular arithmetic.&nbsp;</p> <p>The students aren't breaking a sweat, but make no mistake: They are training hard.&nbsp;</p> <p>About two dozen of the country's top mathletes in Grades 8 to 10 have come to the University of Toronto this week to hone their abilities ahead of national math Olympiads starting this fall.</p> <p>The <a href="https://cms.math.ca/Competitions/COMC/2018/">Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge</a> in November, which is open to all high school students interested in math, is the first step toward harder and more selective national and international contests.&nbsp;</p> <p>Many of the students chosen to attend 老司机直播鈥檚 camp have shown their math mettle by scoring high on past exams, their instructor&nbsp;<strong>Zack Wolske</strong> says. Back at their high schools, most of the students are far ahead of their peers, Wolske adds.&nbsp;鈥淭hey鈥檙e probably bored.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Wolske, a post-doctoral researcher&nbsp;in the department of mathematics, is coaching the students during the week-long camp, helping them solve problems like those they might face on exam day.</p> <p>Some of the questions are so difficult, Wolske says, they could stump some of his first-year university students.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/zack-wolske.jpg" alt><br> <em>Post-doctoral researcher Zack Wolske writes problems on the blackboard at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)</em></p> <p><br> But the teenagers often surpass their teacher鈥檚&nbsp;expectations.</p> <p>鈥淭he students are very clever,鈥 Wolske says, in between scribbling geometry problems on a blackboard at the Bahen Centre for Information Technology. 鈥淭hey show me fascinating things. I have solved a bunch of these problems and seen solutions to them and then they still have new ones.鈥</p> <p>The top 50 students who write the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge, and another few dozen who write a different qualifying exam, are eligible to compete in the Canadian Math Olympiad, the equivalent of nationals for high school math students.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 the highest-level high school math contest in Canada,鈥 Wolske says.</p> <p>Those who do well earn a ticket to the world championships, the International Math Olympiad, which is hosted in a different city each year. In the summer of 2020, it will be in St. Petersburg, Russia.</p> <p>The national Olympiad includes just five questions, ranging in difficulty. 鈥淪ometimes they can be very hard and sometimes you have an insight and then they鈥檙e fast,鈥 Wolske says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 often a key thing to note and if you get it, you can write a short pretty solution. But if you don鈥檛, you might struggle for a long time.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>The contest exposes students to more advanced problem-solving, requiring proofs and detailed analysis 鈥 challenges they might not encounter until later in their education, he adds.</p> <p>With a little luck and plenty of work, the mathletes may be able to secure a place at&nbsp;the international Olympiad and compete against high school students from around the globe. Canada finished 24<sup>th</sup> of 112 countries&nbsp;in this year鈥檚 Olympiad, held in Bath, England earlier this July.</p> <p><strong>Jacob Tsimerman</strong>, a 老司机直播 associate professor in the math department, says&nbsp;he was&nbsp;鈥渋ncredibly proud of our team鈥檚 brilliant performance.鈥</p> <p>鈥淭he IMO is the apex of competitive mathematics at the high school level,鈥 he adds in a release, 鈥渁nd our students have represented our country incredibly well.鈥</p> <p>Tsimerman coached Olympiad hall-of-famer Alex Song, the Waterloo, Ont.-native <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canadian-math-champ-keeps-his-cool-after-huge-win-1.2490876">who achieved a perfect score in 2015.</a></p> <p>Whether or not they're able to match Song鈥檚 success, many of the 26 mathletes at 老司机直播's camp say they enjoy meeting like-minded students from across the country and solving mind-boggling problems together.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/orelia.jpg" alt>Orelia Pi from Toronto (pictured left), who is going into Grade 10, says she was drawn to math because&nbsp;鈥渋t鈥檚 kind of like a puzzle.鈥</p> <p>鈥淎lso the feeling you get when you finish a problem,鈥 she added.&nbsp;鈥淵ou feel good for taking the time to solve it.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Supreet Randhawa</strong>, an outreach administrator in the department of mathematics, says the camp makes an effort to recruit more girls, recognizing the need to boost their numbers in math as in other STEM fields.&nbsp;</p> <p>Pi says she feels she might help change attitudes by attending the camp.&nbsp;鈥淢aybe some guys don鈥檛 realize there are girls who are good at math,鈥 she says, adding that she might help change people's minds by answering problems in class.</p> <p>Some of the mathletes say it鈥檚 refreshing to meet students who are as excited about math as they are. Michael Liudeng, a student from Vaughan who will be in Grade 10 in September, says there鈥檚 a&nbsp;鈥渟tigma鈥 around enjoying math and excelling at it.&nbsp;鈥淣o one says, 鈥業鈥檓 really bad at reading,鈥 but people can say 鈥業鈥檓 really bad at math鈥 and it鈥檚 like a funny thing,鈥 he says.&nbsp;</p> <p>Success in math comes from&nbsp;practice and concentration, he says. 鈥淥ften it鈥檚 about putting your mind to something you鈥檙e not the best at.鈥</p> <p>Jennifer Wang, a Toronto mathlete entering&nbsp;Grade 11 this fall, says the key to her math prowess is perseverance. 鈥淵ou have to keep working at the problem although it鈥檚 really easy to give up,鈥 she says.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 31 Jul 2019 17:25:51 +0000 geoff.vendeville 157389 at Quidditch brings a magic touch to Camp 老司机直播 /news/quidditch-brings-magic-touch-camp-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Quidditch brings a magic touch to Camp 老司机直播 </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-07-22-quidditch-camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=19WeQpLS 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-07-22-quidditch-camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=mJxxAijB 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-07-22-quidditch-camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=rQP_M6sL 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-07-22-quidditch-camp.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=19WeQpLS" alt="photo of Quidditch player on broomstick, aloft"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-07-22T15:12:20-04:00" title="Friday, July 22, 2016 - 15:12" class="datetime">Fri, 07/22/2016 - 15:12</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Though human Quidditch is played on the field, it didn鈥檛 stop camper Noah Friedman from attempting to fly (all photos by Romi Levine)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/summer-camp" hreflang="en">Summer Camp</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/camp" hreflang="en">Camp</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>It seems fitting that a school often likened to Hogwarts for its appearance&nbsp;would be the venue for a lesson in witchcraft and wizardry.&nbsp;</p> <p>On a sunny July day, around 30 eager kids made their way to the fields of Back Campus at the University of Toronto to learn how to play Quidditch.&nbsp;</p> <p>In J.K. Rowling's&nbsp;<em>Harry Potter</em> series, the sport is played while soaring through the air&nbsp;on flying broomsticks. But it鈥檚 been adapted for mere Muggles (non-magical people) and there鈥檚 even <a href="https://uoftquidditch.wordpress.com/">a 老司机直播 Quidditch team called the Centaurs</a>.</p> <p>Two of those&nbsp;team members were tasked with training the kids 鈥 all participants in University of Toronto鈥檚&nbsp;summer camp 鈥 Camp 老司机直播.</p> <h2><a href="http://www.physical.utoronto.ca/ChildrenAndYouth/Camp_UofT.aspx">Read more about Camp 老司机直播</a></h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚 am a huge <em>Harry Potter</em> fan so I鈥檝e been looking forward to it since I found out we were going to do it this week,鈥 says camper Jessica Filipovich, 13.&nbsp;</p> <p>If this kind of activity appears unconventional for a summer camp, you鈥檇 be right. It鈥檚 part of a program within Camp 老司机直播 called <a href="http://physical.utoronto.ca/ChildrenAndYouth/Camp_UofT/Camp_UofT_Summer/not-sports-camp">NOT Sports Camp</a>.</p> <p>Offered for the first time this year,&nbsp;NOT Sports Camp includes&nbsp;games such as&nbsp;capture the flag, inner tube water polo and dodgeball .</p> <p>鈥淣OT Sports Camp is an opportunity for a non-traditional camp experience in a sense that we wanted to create a program that did not focus on the traditional sports,鈥 says <strong>Mandy D鈥橝rcy</strong>. The manager of children and youth at 老司机直播's Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education, she also oversees Camp 老司机直播 and Junior Blues programming throughout the year.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e really wanted to reach those children who were not necessarily interested in traditional athletics or being sporty鈥 but really just wanted to play games and have fun,鈥 she says.鈥淚 think we鈥檙e really successful in a sense that it鈥檚 sold out, it鈥檚 been really popular and the kids really seem to enjoy it.鈥</p> <p><img alt="photo of players on field" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1536 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2016-07-22-camp-quidditch-embed.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 522px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>This spirit of inclusivity is the foundation of Camp 老司机直播, which prides itself on celebrating and accepting people鈥檚 differences.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭hat can open some eyes,鈥 says D鈥橝rcy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Kids from all over Toronto, Canada and the world are attracted to Camp 老司机直播鈥檚 positive environment and the university鈥檚 global reputation, she says 鈥 with campers coming from as far as China to spend a week on campus.&nbsp;</p> <p>Next week, seven Syrian refugees will be attending Camp 老司机直播 鈥 with three more subsidized spots available to newcomers.</p> <p>D鈥橝rcy says that after going through terrible trauma, the campers鈥 biggest challenge will be learning how to be kids again.&nbsp;鈥淪o for them, the camp is a great experience, a great opportunity.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>But for all kids, the chance to go to camp can be life-changing, she adds.</p> <p>鈥淭heir experience having been in a week of camp really can make a difference for them. Making a lot of friends, having fun, obviously and being exposed to something they鈥檝e never been exposed to.鈥&nbsp;</p> <h2><a href="/news/photo-gallery/summer-16-camp-u-t">See a photo gallery</a></h2> <p>Many campers enjoy their time at Camp 老司机直播 so much, they go on to become counsellors and sometimes faculty, she says.&nbsp;</p> <p>For camp counsellor and fourth-year neuroscience student Lauren Sudac, Camp 老司机直播 has been a rewarding experience.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚 love the interaction with the kids and the smiles we can put on their faces, even with simple games or as complex games as Quidditch,鈥 she says. It鈥檚 her first summer working at the camp.<br> Watching the campers play Quidditch, it was clear they were having a blast as they whizzed across the field on their makeshift broomsticks.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t was really, really fun,鈥 Filipovich says. 鈥淚f I ever go to 老司机直播 maybe I鈥檒l try out for the team.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>For 13-year-old Noah Friedman, it was an exciting way to see the magical game come to life in the real world.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t was really interesting 鈥榗ause I read the books and understand the rules in the books and so it was really cool to see how people have turned it into something you can actually do,鈥 he says.</p> <p><img alt="photo of Quidditch player aloft" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1537 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2016-07-22-camp-quidditch-embed2.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 485px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image">&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 22 Jul 2016 19:12:20 +0000 lanthierj 14724 at