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As part of our mission to stimulate the study of math and science in the schools, Weizmann Science Canada has two programs currently offered in schools across Canada. Many students are benefiting from these wonderful programs.
MATH-BY-MAIL
The Weizmann Institute’s Math-By-Mail program is an extra-curricular math enrichment correspondence program, initiated many years ago by the Youth Activities section of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. The program is still running with great success in Israel and is constantly being updated and revised.
The purpose of this program is to supply extra-curricular math enrichment activities and challenges for children who are interested and talented in math. The program is run from the Young@Science headquarters at the Weizmann Institute in Israel (by co-authors Dr. Yossi Elran and Mrs. Michal Elran).
The program is implemented in the following manner: participating schools select students who show a keen interest in mathematics. The students participating in the program complete a series of four math “questionnaires” distributed to them throughout the year. Each questionnaire is dedicated to a different extracurricular topic in math which is new, exciting, challenging and ...fun! It typically introduces the students to a main topic, and the students are then asked to answer a series of questions that become more challenging as they proceed. Each question is marked and returned to the students. Along the way, the students also learn more advanced material about the topic as well as related items such as biographies of mathematicians, general math knowledge and trivia, etc...
The variety of topics that have been taught through this program in past years is vast, but to give you some indication of the scope of this program, here is a list of a few topics from previous years:• Graphs
• The Mathematics of Mazes
• Cryptarithms
• Logic
• Mathematical Operators
• Prime Numbers
• Worlds of Different Dimensions
• Curved Triangles
• Euler and his Amazing Formula
• The Pigeonhole Principle
• Bases
• Pascal's Amazing Triangle
• Tic Tac Toe
• Magic Squares… and many more!
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Each questionnaire is newly written for the program, ensuring up-to-date material and a “fresh” approach to the topic. There are currently four levels. Each group receives a questionnaire that deals with the same topic, but the level of difficulty is different. The students have approximately 3 weeks to complete each questionnaire.
Apart from the actual questionnaires, those students who have access to the Internet will benefit from interaction on a weekly basis with mathematicians at the Young@Science headquarters at the Weizmann Institute. Students are supplied with extra material, riddles and puzzles, and if they require, help with the questions that they have.
At the end of the year, the children participate in a grand finale – a mathematical ”Treasure Hunt”. The participants solve riddles from the topics they have learned about during the year and the solutions “lead” them to the “treasure.” For a sample questionnaire, click here!
The Shalheveth Freier Physics Tournament
Every year, the Weizmann Institute is the scene for the greatest safecracking feats known to high schoolers. Senior high school students from Israel and around the world form teams and take on the challenge: Build a safe that only your team can open, and then try to open the safes of all the other teams. Each team is given a box and a lock mechanism and must use simple materials to build a safe that operates on the principles of physics, able to be opened in less than five minutes, but that will keep opponents stumped for at least 10 minutes. Entries are scored by a panel of referees, not only for being crack-proof, but also for aesthetics and originality. Teams get added points for every safe they manage to crack. The two-day showdown takes place at the Weizmann campus in the spring.
The Canadian competition takes place toward the end of February, in order to select two teams to represent Canada at the competition in Israel.
Visit the site of The Shalheveth Freier Physics Tournament.
For more information on either of these programs, please contact:
Toronto and Western Canada:
Joan Pollock, Weizmann Science Canada
4700 Bathurst Street, 2nd Floor
Toronto, ON M2R 1W8
Tel: 416-733-9220 Fax: 416-733-9430
e-mail: [email protected]
Eastern Canada:
Susan Stern, Weizmann Science Canada
23-2340 Lucerne Road
Montreal, QC H3R 2J8
Tel: 514-342-0777 Fax: 514-342-0602 Cell: 514-814-7229
e-mail: [email protected]
Israel:
Dr. Yossi Elran, Young@science
e-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
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