Brain boffs flex their mental brawn
It was a morning of fun and learning at the recent SEMAS Abacus Maths Championship.
MORE than 250 maths boffs flocked tot the St Agnes Church in Kloof to take part in the fourth annual SEMAS Abacus Maths Championship in the Highway area.
Tracy Hauptefleisch, the franchise owner for the Durban North West region said that the abacus based mental arithmetic programme is used in many schools in the East. “The children use the abacus to visualise numbers and teaches them how to do plus and minus as well as making it a lot easier for them,” she said.
Due to the amount of pupils that registered on the morning, the group was split into two, with they younger children forming the first group and writing two papers, while the older and more experienced group wrote a total of six papers. According to Tracy the children taking part were not given one generic test paper, but each paper was specifically designed based on each mathematicians their experience.
To help keep the young minds active while they were awaiting their turns to write, there was a mini market for them, and their parents, to browse, with delicious treats to eat and a few goods on sale as well as pony rides and a jumping castle. These stalls and rides generated funds which will be used to send the KZN team to take part in the PAMA International Maths Competition in December. The Kloof SPAR generously donated a host of goods for the event.
