Guest Teacher in Grade 10 Mathematics Class

In the week of 10 March, the Grade 10 Mathematics Extended class had a special guest teacher. Professor Shane Bauman from the Faculty of Mathematics and the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo, Canada, visited UNIS Hanoi. The Grade 10 students were engaged in an interactive mathematics workshop, in which they were led through some guided problem solving. A great opportunity to develop their creative and critical thinking skills further!

An example of a problem the students were asked to solve – try it yourself if you like!

Fill that box 

There are 8 boxes, see diagram below. Two players play against each other by taking turns writing their letter in one box or two consecutive boxes. The person who writes in the last empty box wins. What is your strategy to win?

Extension 1: How about your winning strategy if there are n boxes?
Extension 2: How about your winning strategy if there are 2 rows of n boxes? 

These are also the kind of questions that you would often come across in Mathematics competitions.

It was great to see our Grade 10 students enjoy the challenges and collaborate with their peers, their teacher Mr. Dore, and professor Bauman to transfer and apply their mathematical skills in different contexts. Daniel said: “The opportunity to take a special class with the University of Waterloo last week was fantastic. Not only was I able to have the chance to solve various different math questions that require critical thinking but also to get to know about the University of Waterloo.”