PROBLEMS

OF EDUCATION
IN THE 21st CENTURY
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MATHEMATICS FOR THE TALENTED

ONES AS WELL AS THE OTHERS1

Abstract

Bohumil Novk, Josef Molnr, Jaroslav vrek

Palack University in Olomouc, Czech Republic
E-mail: novakb@pdfnw.upol.cz; molnar@inf.upol.cz; svrcek@inf.upol.cz

The results of a broadly-conceived research carried out in the Czech Republic in 2006 have shown that Math
and Science do not belong to favorite subjects at secondary schools. The problem does not reside in Math
itself, but in the personal reflection of the experiences from Math teaching. Mathematical competitions,
unusual problem solving, games, projects and other motivational activities might provide an opportunity
to change the attitude toward Math as a school subject. The confidence of what has just been said has
brought the scientific team of the Palack University in Olomouc to solving a grant of the Czech Ministry
of Education, Youth and Sports. Within the grant the team has been seeking and verifying new methods
and forms of competitions focusing on creative activities of youth in Math. The research activities can be
divided into three areas:
New forms of work with mathematically gifted pupils (Jaroslav vrek) aimed at preparing and implementing mathematical competitions in the Czech secondary schools environment. International mathematical
competitions such as Mathematical Duel or Middle European Mathematical Olympiad present the
chances to compare mathematical knowledge of talented pupils of Middle-European countries. The Tournament of Towns is even more widely conceived. Students solve the same problems (two times in the year)
in their mother tongues of the cities of participating countries (Praha, Brno, Olomouc and Blovec are the
only towns in the Czech Republic participation will be offered to all Czech cities next year).
The experience from organizing and didactic use of problems from the internationally-coordinated competition Mathematical Kangaroo is used for preparing, creating and advertising its new modification
called Sciences Kangaroo (Josef Molnr). The nature of the competition as well as the target group (i.e.
the ordinary elementary and secondary school pupils) remains the same. The tasks fall into the area of
Natural Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, and Ecology. Their motivational features are
stressed as this makes seeing the subject matter more interesting.
The third part, called Playful Mathematics (Bohumil Novk), focuses on preparing, creating and supporting a research in the educational efficiency of various mathematical activities in the elementary school
environment: class, individual or staged competitions, games or integrated school projects which following
the constructivist approaches aim at getting to know Mathematics. Reflection of the participants view is
very important in this respect the participants are welcome to subsequently give their comments on both
the content and the form of the event.
Key words: teaching mathematics, mathematical competitions, games, projects, motivational activities.

Funded by project NPV II STM Morava, No. 2E06029.

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Introduction and Motivation

The on-going curricular reform creates a good environment for the overall development of
pupils and students personality in the Czech Republic. However, the results of a widely oriented
research scheduled for 2006 suggested that Mathematics and natural sciences in general are not
among the popular secondary school subjects. It is not Mathematics itself that is the problem; it
is pupils / students reflection of experience from learning Mathematics. In this respect, teachers
play the key role as well as the way they can make pupils / students see Mathematics. There are a
number of ways of changing the attitude towards Mathematics as a school subject: mathematical
competitions, solving non-standard tasks, games, projects or other motivational activities.
The assumptions mentioned above have become a starting point of the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic grant scheduled for 2006-2008. The aim of the research
project, which is being realized by the scientific team of the Faculties of Science and Education,
the Palack University in Olomouc, is to look for and verify new methods and forms of creative
scientific competitions among the youth. By means of the newly-discovered competitions we
want to affect the motivation for scientific activity in Mathematics as well as to make Mathematics more popular.
Research Activities
The research activities fall within three areas:
The first area was developed as follows. Until the year 2006 mathematically gifted students
of Czech secondary schools had had only two opportunities to take part in national mathematical
competitions in the Czech Republic. These were the Mathematical Olympiads and starting from
the year 1995 also the well-known Kangaroo. The solvers of this grant wanted to explore and test
some world-known activities in Czech conditions.
Since the second half of the year 2006 we have been trying to put into effect (and prove its
functionality) the Tournament of Towns in the Czech Republic, one of prestigious competitions among pupils of cities of the whole world. In autumn 2006 two Czech cities took part in this
competition (Praha as a big city, and Blovec as a small city). In the spring part of the 28th
Tournament of Towns this competition was also tested in two other cities (Olomouc and Perov)
both from the Moravia region. In this competition altogether more than 350 pupils of Czech secondary schools of mentioned cities took part. The formulation of all used problems was translated
from the original (Russian) version into Czech and the pupils could write theirs full solutions in
Czech language. On the grounds of our new experience with these competitions, solvers responsible for this grant created and proposed a more suitable version of this competition in the Czech
Republic. Starting from the next year there will probably be the competition among pupils of all
the regions in the Czech Republic. The Czech regions are better comparable (by results in this
competition) with big cities of the world.
All problems are available on the official website of Tournament of Towns (Turnir gorodov).
The Czech version of problems (with solutions) is available on the special website of the Palack
University in Olomouc.
The organization of an international mathematics competition Mathematical Duel(or in short
Duel) is being verified within the research. Students of these three secondary have taken part
in this competition: Gymnzium Mikul e Kopernka in Blovec (CZE), I. LO in Chorzw (POL)
and Bundesrealgymnasium in Graz (AUT). The last year of this competition, which is concentrated on the work with mathematically gifted pupils, took place in March 2007. The competition
always proceeds in three age categories A, B, and C, as an individual and also team competition
(Geretschlger, vrek, 2005). We present (with consent) a collection of some problems from the
last Mathematical Duel (Chorzw, March, 8th, 2007).

Bohumil NOVK, Josef MOLNR, Jaroslav VREK. Mathematics for the Talented Ones as well as the Others

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Volume 2, 2007

Category A (age 18 19 years)

Individual competition
1. Suppose the quadratic equation x2 - 2007x + b = 0 with a real parameter b has two positive integer roots. Determine the maximum value of b.
2. Determine all positive real numbers x, y and z for which the following system of equations
x(x + y) + z(x y) =

65,

y(y + z) + x(y z) = 296,

z(z + x) + y(z x) = 104.
is fulfilled.
3. Let M be the centre of the unit circle and A, B, C and P points of this circle such that
ABM and BCM are equilateral triangles, MP is perpendicular to AM and P lies on the
opposite half-plane divided by the line AM with respect to B and C. Prove that the equality
|CP| (|AC| 1) =

holds.
4. Let ABC be an acute-angled triangle. Further let D be foot of the altitude from C to the
side AB and P, Q be feet of perpendiculars from D on AC, BC, respectively. Let X be the
second point of intersection (beside P) of PQ with the circumcircle of the triangle ADP,
and similarly the second point of intersection (beside Q) of PQ and the circumcircle of
the triangle BDQ. The extension of the ray DX meets AC at the point U and the extension
of the ray DY meets BC at the point V. Prove that the two triangles with vertices A, D, U
and B, D, V are similar.
Total time: 150 min.

Category C (age 14 15 years)

Team competition
1. Determine in how many ways the 4 x 4 checkerboard can be covered using 8 dominoes
of the size 2 x 1.
2. A real function f (x) = x2 + ax + b with D  E is given such that
f (a) = 51,

f (b) = b3 + b2 (a + 1)

and f (1) < 0

hold. Determine the values of a and b.

3. A hexagon ABCDEF is inscribed in a circle with radius 3 and diameter AD. Let four of
its sides AB, CD, DE and FA be a length of 2. Determine the area and circumference of
the hexagon.
Total time: 90 min.
The last new activity, in which there were interesting members of the solvers group of this
partial task, is the preparation of the 1st Middle European Mathematical Olympiad (MEMO). This
competition is scheduled for the end of September 2007 in Austrian Eisenstadt (first of all on the
basis of the activity of Austrian colleagues). The national teams of Austria, Poland, the Czech Re-

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public, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland took part in the first year of this competition.
The Czech Republic will be the main organizer of the 2nd MEMO, which will be held at the Palack
University in Olomouc, on September, 4th 10th, 2008. After this competition finishes, it will be
reflected in our research.
As to the second area, the experience from organizing and didactic use of problems from the
internationally-coordinated competition Mathematical Kangaroo is used for preparing, creating
and advertising its new modification called Sciences Kangaroo (Josef Molnr). The nature of the
competition as well as the target group (i.e. the ordinary elementary and secondary school pupils)
remains the same. The tasks fall into the area of Natural Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Biology,
Geography, Ecology etc. Their motivational features are stressed as this makes seeing the subject
matter more interesting.
The first confirmation year of the contest named the Scientific Kangaroo took place in the
Czech Republic on April 25, 2007. There were two categories: Cadet (8th- and 9th-year students
of elementary schools, 14-15 years of age) and Junior (1st- and 2nd-year students of grammar/secondary schools, 16-17 years of age). In each of the two categories there were 24 problems and the
competitors had 45 minutes to solve them.
For an illustration, let us present a few problems used in the competition:

Cadet Category 2007

2. The most features close to a human can be found in case of
(A) a gibbon (B) a gorilla (C) a chimpanzee (D) a macaque (E) an orangutan
4. Which of the following does not belong among metals
(A) mercury (B) magnesium (C) zinc (D) silicon (E) tin (stannum)
5. How many sides does a dodecahedron have?
(A) 4 (B) 6 (C) 10 (D) 12 (E) 20
6. Water has the highest density at the temperature of
(A) 10 C (B) 4 C (C) 0 C (D) -4 C (E) -10 C
7. In what language does the word kangourou mean kangaroo?
(A) English (B) Deutsch (C) French (D) Polish (E) Estonian
8. A fisherman caught a carp. The carps tail weighted 1 pound, the head weighted as much
as the tail together with a half of the carps body and the body weighted as much as the
head together with the tail. So the whole carp weighted
(A) 6 pounds (B) 8 pounds (C) 10 pounds (D) 12 pounds (E) 14 pounds
10. Choose the most precise answer to the question: How many bones and muscles are
there in a human body?
(A) a human body has 200 bones and 600 muscles (B) a human body has 600 bones and
200 muscles (C) a human body has 300 bones and 300 muscles (D) a human body has
250 bones and 250 muscles (E) a human body has 250 bones and 400 muscles
13. Christopher Columbus discovered America in
(A) 1592 (B) 1515 (C) 1352 (D) 1392 (E) 1492
14. Martin, whose eyes are 150 cm above the ground, was determining the height of a poplar
in front of the school using the reflection of the tree in a puddle. He found out that the
puddle was 20 m away from the poplar and when he was standing 3 m from the puddle, he
could see the reflection of the treetop in the puddle. The height of the poplar is about
(A) 15 m (B) 20 m (C) 10 m (D) 6 m (E) 22 m

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Volume 2, 2007

15. Which of the following does not belong among the methods of mixture components 63
separation?
(A) re-crystallization (B) extraction (C) distillation (D) titration (E) chromatography
19. Which of the following belongs to the vegetable that we consume from Solanaceae
family?
(A) chives, leek (B) cucumber, patty pan squash (C) broccoli, cauliflower (D) paprika,
tomato (E) parsley, celery
20. An inventor of the steam engine James Watt teamed up with a rich Birmingham factory
owner Boulton. In order to attract new customers, it was important to express how much
horse power the mine owners can save due to their invention. They measured that in one
second a strong horse could pull up 75 liters of water from the depth of 1 meter. Thus
a unit of power 1 horsepower (hp) came into being. The power of how many Watts is
equivalent to 10 horsepowers? (the acceleration of gravity g = 10 mxs-2, density of water
= 1000 kgxm-3).
(A) 750 W (B) 7500 W (C) 1500 W (D) 15000 W (E) 5000 W
21. It is for sure that the nucleus of an atom, which has the nucleon number of 12, consists
of:
(A) 12 neutrons (B) altogether 12 protons and neutrons (C) altogether 12 neutrons and
electrons (D) 12 electrons (E) 12 protons
23. What is the amount of water produced by burning 10 g of a gas mixture of oxygen and
hydrogen in the ideal ratio?
(A) 100g (B) 1kg (C) 0,1g (D) 10g (E) 1g
Junior Category 2007
1. On a one meter long strip of paper we draw marks that divide the strip into 4 parts of
equal length. Then we draw other marks that divide it into 3 parts of equal length. Next
we cut the strip at every place where there is a (any) mark. How many different lengths
do the small stripes have now?
(A) 2 (B) 3 (C) 4 (D) 5 (E) 6
2. Which of the following organelles do plants and animals cells have in common?
(A) chloroplasts (B) cell wall formed by cellulose (C) vacuole (D) mitochondria (E)
leucoplasts
13. On March 31, 2007 we remembered the 280th anniversary related to the death of one of
the most famous physicists of all times (it was possible to remember the anniversary on
March 20, 2007 too as in that time the Julian calendar was valid instead of our todays
Gregorian calendar). The famous physicist is
(A) Albert Einstein (B) Thomas Alva Edison (C) Galileo Galilei (D) Isaac Newton (E)
Andr-Marie Ampre
14. A construction kit only contains cuboid pieces of the dimensions 2 x 3 x 1. What is the
least amount of these pieces that we need to build up a cube?
(A) 6 (B) 12 (C) 36 (D) 216 (E) 288
17. Which of the following matters stop cell division?
(A) carcinogens (B) cytostatics (C) antihistamine (D) antibiotics (E) antiseptics
18. How many liters of hot water having the temperature of 80 C is it necessary to pour to a
bathtub where there are 80 liters of water with the temperature of 20 C so that in result,
we have the bathtub with water that has the temperature of 40 C?

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(A) 20 liters (B) 30 liters (C) 40 liters (D) 50 liters (E) 60 liters
23. Amount of substance is given by
(A) the product of mass and molar mass (B) the product of mass and molar concentration
(C) quotient of mass and molar mass (D) quotient of molar mass and mass
(E) the product of molar mass and the square of the mass
Correct answers:
Cadet
2 C, 4 D, 5 D, 6 B, 7 C, 8 B, 10 A, 13 E, 14 C, 15 D, 19 D, 20 B, 21 B, 23 D
Junior
1 B, 2 D, 13 D, 14 C, 17 B, 18 C, 23 C
Within the research the answers of the questionnaire survey are being processed. The respondents were the teachers that have realized the competition in their schools. The results and conclusion
will be presented.
The main aim is to popularize science fields among the youth, to stimulate and support the interest of pupils and students in these fields, to show their attractiveness and usefulness. A similar goal is
set within other activities of teachers and students at the Faculty of Science, the Palack University
in Olomouc such as, for instance, The Fair of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics which is held
at the Olomouc city hall every year (Htle, 2006), the Run with the Kangaroo which consists of a
cross-country running (1.5 10 km), jumping in duffel bags and solving problems from Combinatorics, Geometry, Logic and other mathematical, physical and other fields. Another example of such
activities is the Summer school of Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics meant for talented students
entering the last year of grammar schools with an international participation, internet correspondence
Math, Physics and Chemistry competitions, etc.
Verification of the effect of these activities on pupils and students as well as probing the opinions of teachers and other pedagogical workers, who are involved in the activities mentioned above,
is a part of the development and research in new forms of care for talents. The individual forms of
working with talents will be modified and further developed on the basis of the survey results carried out by psychologists.
The interest in supporting the scientific fields can also be proved by materials processed by
practitioners and academics from the Great Britain, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic within
a Socrates-Comenius project entitled PROMOTE MSc (Nezvalov, Molnr, 2006). Another example is the world association of national organizers of scientific competitions with the focus on the
Scientific Kangaroo which is currently being formed in Georgia.
The third area, called Playful Mathematics (Bohumil Novk), focuses on preparing, creating
and supporting research into the educational efficiency of various mathematical activities in the elementary school environment: class, individual or staged competitions, games or integrated school
projects, which following the constructivist approaches aim at getting to know mathematics. The
events are prepared in order to give pupils (even the less mathematically talented ones) a chance to
acquire new mathematical experience and especially to let them get to know mathematics as something
else than a boring subject as an environment for personality development, interesting experimenting
and discoveries. The teachers could see it as a chance to change their ways of teaching as well as
forms and methods they use all in order to be able to teach mathematics in a creative and interesting way. Reflection of the participants view is very important in this respect the participants are
welcome to subsequently give their comments on both the content and the form of the event.
The above-mentioned activities reflect the main aims of the curricular reform. Mathematics for
tomorrows young children is to become the environment for developing students personality. The
idea of humanization, which stresses the idea of a school as a service to children and help in their

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Volume 2, 2007

development, the important part of which are the affective components of learning (Crowl et al., 65
1997), is of primary importance. Developing childrens personality is understood as their education
in the broader sense of the word. Pupils are no longer objects of indoctrinating but as subject of their
own learning. Die Lernenden werden nicht mehr als Objekte der Belehrung, sondern als Subjekte
ihres Lernens aufgefasst. (Wittman, 1997). A teacher in school is to develop his/her pupils knowhow, their ability to reason as well as encourage their creative thinking. (Polya, 1966). This makes
space for the change in attitude to teaching mathematics as well as space for changing the forms and
methods of teaching so that teachers could teach mathematics in a creative and interesting way and
could help in creating a new climate in class.
At the same time this is a challenge for parents they have an opportunity to get to know at
least something of what their children know. They can learn about the nature of the constructivist
oriented teaching of mathematics and the way it is based on the subject integration (open classes).
They also have an opportunity to find out what experience and stimuli can their children find in the
lesson. The natural precondition, however, is their coming to the class and sharing the experience
with their children (Kafoussi, 2006).
Prospective teachers of mathematics students of the Faculty of Education, Palack University
in Olomouc, took part in preparing and carrying out the events as well. Co-operating with experienced
teachers they prepared various unconventional activities aimed at motivating pupils for mathematics,
at developing favorable perception of mathematics as a school subject within the subject integration
framework, or making pupils learn mathematics in a funny and easy way. Preparing such activities
is another tool in making mathematics more popular.
Mathematical activities, performed during the research can be sorted as follows:
games (e.g. sudoku, crosswords, board games, computer games, brain teasers)

activities connected with everyday experiences (projects),

unusual mathematical problems (e.g. Kangaroo problems).

Conclusion
If pupils are to learn something, they must want to learn. Motivation plays a key role in the
pedagogical practice as it gives subjective sense to the learning activities of pupils. It has been repeatedly proved that solving unconventional tasks, playing games, doing projects or other motivational
activities can help to change the attitude to mathematics as a school subject. The activities, however,
can shape the pupil only on condition that the teacher knows their personality and influences the
learning environment in such a way that pupils themselves can organize their work and take active
part in the teaching learning process. This enables the pupils to see learning mathematics as solving interesting tasks.
A broadly organized research into popularity of respective school subjects and attitudes towards
them (among pupils aged 11-18, 2006, Czech Republic) concluded that mathematics is not a popular
subject and that pupils lack the ability to apply the obtained mathematical knowledge in real life
situations (Grecmanov, Dopita 2007). This influences the situation at universities and universities
of technology as well as even these schools lack good students with positive attitude to mathematics.
It is not mathematics that is the problem, it is the personal reflection of experience obtained when
being taught mathematics, i.e. the mathematics that the teachers show to pupils / students.
The partial project outcome have been presented at scientific conferences and published in
mathematical as well as pedagogical journals. They can be also found at www.souteze.upol.cz

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References
Brousseau, G. (1997). Theory of Didactical Situations in Mathematics. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Crowl, T. K., & Kaminski, S., & Podell, D.M. (1997). Educational Psychology. Windows on teaching. New
York: Brown Benchmark.
Geretschlger, R., & vrek, J. (2005): A Local International Mathematics Competition. Mathematics Competitions, Vol. 18, No. 2, 39-51.
Grecmanov, H., & Dopita, M. (2007). On the Interest of Pupils in Natural Sciences. (in Czech, an unpublished text).
Htle, J. (2006). Mini-Jarmark na Z Paseka u Olomouce. In: Sbornk konference Nov metody propagace
prodnch vd mezi mlde. Olomouc: UP.
Kafoussi, S. (2006). Parents and Students Interaction in Mathematics: Designed Home Mathematical Activities. In: Proceedings of CIEAEM 58, 209 - 214.
Nezvalov, D., & Molnr, J. (Eds.). (2006). Promote Motivation Through Exciting Materials in Mathematics
and Science. Olomouc: VUP.
Polya, G. (1966). Mathematical Discovery. New York: John Wiley et Sons.
Wittman, E. CH. (1997). 10 Jahre Mathe 2000: Bilanz und Perspektiven. Dortmund: Universitt Dortmund,
Klett.

Adviced by Petr Emanovsk,

Palack University, Czech Republic.