[gallery td_gallery_title_input="Stimulating minds — tiny IISJ'ians mentor a math mela" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" size="medium" ids="33876,33877,33878,33879,33880,33881"] JEDDAH — A significant section of young students appear to be apprehensive of mathematics as a subject. They view it as their nemesis, and this in turn, prevents them from learning this beautiful subject during their school years. To dispense the notion that mathematics is a difficult subject to comprehend, the teachers and students from IISJ came together to hold the first of its kind ‘Math Mela' on Monday. IISJ played host to a mathematical fun fair to teach students various concepts of mathematics. Math was blended with various games, fun exhibitions and activity corners to enchant the audience with endless possibilities of mathematical applications. The objective behind the celebration of Math Mela was to instill in kids a love for the subject. The educational event saw seven to eight year pupils involved in problem-solving challenges to ‘put mathematics in a practical context'. The celebration of mathematics featured 8 stations with different topics from the curriculum like Mission Addition, Time Keepers, Super Subtraction Squad, Shapes and Patterns Quest, Managing Money, Fun With Numbers, Into Multiplication and Measurement that designed games and activities to tempt, tease, inspire and sometimes frustrate the 900 students who visited the stalls and make the Common Core curriculum fun through exploration. At the Mission Addition stall children enjoyed activities of "No trouble to add double", "egg-cellent", "Have fun and get Math done" and "Dominos Add and park game". These fun-learn activities taught the kids expertise in addition operation process with motivation for independent practice. The second stall was The Time Keepers. At this stall children enjoyed playing with colorful clocks by setting the time and played time hunt games. This stall showed students how important time management is in their everyday lives. The next stall was Managing Money, which designed activities to enhance counting, identification and management of money. It had games like Money spinner that involved spinning the wheel, analyzing the problem and selecting the correct answer. A shopping spree activity was arranged to capture interest. The next stall of In To Multiplication had a straw array activity, which involved counting the joints to decipher the answer by the tiny tots. A special bead board was conceptualized with beads to show multiplication as repeated addition. It also featured a teen board with multiplication properties, skip counting on caterpillars and a very fun filled rotating Fact wheel with questions based on multiplication. The Fun with Numbers stall covered activities based on place value, building numbers, comparison of numbers, skip counting and ordinals. It provided incentives for students to develop skills necessary to facilitate students' learning process and develop numerical and arithmetic skills. The Super Subtraction Squad children taught their friends to play subtraction snooker by hitting the correct answer written on each snooker balls. The subtract with straws, pin the answer on the regrouping module and the main attraction was the "take away fish" where the children had to solve a subtraction problem and pick the answer on the fish with a fishing rod. The children enjoyed plucking fruits as answers from the subtraction tree and complete their subtraction problems. Measurement Stall had a colorful and innovative arrangement to enhance the children's basic mathematical concepts of measuring length, weight and capacity using standardized and non-standardized weighing equipment. The last stall of Shapes had lots of wonderful activities with an innate motive to develop their ability to accurately identify shapes and patterns. The shapes hunt and pattern quest, shapes Sudoku and games on plane and solid shapes explored their spatial relations ability. The 4 corners of quadrangle had games like Hopscotch, Snakes and Ladders, Dart games and measurement of weight and height all based on mathematical concepts to educate and teach the subject. The exhibited models, charts and slogans and fun filled games related to mathematics not only created awareness among students but also identified the meaning of mathematics in day to day activities for the implication in lifelong learning. It provided a gauge to determine how effectively students are prepared in the modules of curriculum through activities. Special training was also imparted to teachers and children in preparing for the activities. The event aimed to sharpen innate numerical skills of young minds which will in turn help them to score more in higher classes by rekindling the interest in the subject and removing "math phobia" as most students find mathematics a tough nut to crack. The fair was a successful opportunity to stimulate their innocent yet concrete imagination effectively.
