The title says it all. If your child is excited by the words ‘maths challenge’ and counts the days to the next competition, this is the camp for them! Discover the fascinating and competitive world beyond school mathematics and computer studies. Learning why and how best to ‘show your workings’ is vital in maths and far beyond, from the legal profession to every scientific discipline. Understand binary search, the problems it solves and sorting data. We will also teach what the complexity of algorithms is and how to compare their performance.
Maths
This a chance for Camp participants to discover and learn about the format and style of problems offered in various mathematical competitions for their age both in the UK and worldwide. We will dive into the most popular topics that come up in questions, explore different approaches to solving problems and discuss possible shortcuts that can be used to save time during a contest.
Solving a problem is rarely enough. The most advanced competitions require participants to write down their workings in full, with all their steps carefully explained. The ability to communicate your own reasoning rigorously and convincingly is an important skill that has practical applications beyond the context of competitions (from, for example, the legal profession to every scientific discipline). We will practise the art of translating thinking into a mathematically solid text, which brings deeper understanding and greater confidence in the subject.
Junior Programming
Programming has become one of the most important skills of the 21st century. The number of jobs that require coding will continue to increase dramatically. At the same time programming strengthens logical thinking and problem-solving skills – vital in many different areas of life, from engineering and science to medicine and law. In our Coding Clubs we use the Scratch visual environment (developed by MIT) to create animations and games to teach children all the major programming constructions and how to compose effective algorithms. Participants will see and learn more about the connection between programming and maths.
Senior Programming
Depending on a child’s previous experience and knowledge of Python, pupils will either learn the basics of Python or will go further and learn how to find the greatest common divisor of two numbers and explore the other algorithms on prime numbers. Participants will study binary search and the problems it solves. They will understand the complexity of algorithms, discover the different sorting algorithms, their application and compare their performance. Do you know what is the optimal number of comparisons we need to find minimum/maximum, to sort a list of numbers?
Places are limited, please register your interest HERE.