Students prepare for maths Olympics

Press, 15 May 1987, Page 4

Students prepare for maths Olympics

Twenty secondary school pupils from throughout New Zealand are spending a week of their May holidays solving mathematics problems. The study is partly for love of the subject — and partly to help select eight sudents for an International Mathematics Olympics in Canberra in 1988.

The organisers originally started with 200 pupils, who trained by correspondence with the universities. Three university lecturers in mathematics are working with the 20 selected for the camp. The problems being tackled by the students were much more involved than the normal school mathematics, said one of the tutors, Professor Derek Holton, of Otago University. “By and large, every problem is different, and it takes some ingenuity to

solve it.” The preparation for the contest will benefit secondary school mathematics in New Zealand, according to one camp organiser, Mrs Gillian Heald, of Christchurch Teachers College.

She said it had the effect of getting talented young people interested in mathematics. The students were in Forms 5 and 6.

The Canberra event is the first which New Zealand has been invited to attend.

Costs of the camp are being met by a Lottery Board grant. The total cost of the mathematics Olympics, including administration, training and airfares, is estimated at $40,000.

The committee was trying to raise money from businesses, but had not had much success so far, said Mrs Heald.