Press Releases

Canada wide Caribou Competition
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BROCK UNIVERSITY
MEDIA ADVISORY

Dec. 6, 2011
Caribou Mathematics Competition
905-688-5550 x3803

NEWS EDITORS: Please consider the following item for a possible public service announcement and/or community calendar item.

Brock University offers free Canada-wide junior math challenge

The Department of Mathematics at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., has made its successful online math competition for students from Grades 3 to 8 available to schools across Canada.

The Caribou Mathematics Competition, which launched in 2009, has gradually grown over the years from first being offered to students in the Niagara region then in Ontario, to students from the rest of the country.

The contest is available in English and French and takes place six times during the school year for each category: Grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. At the end of the school year, three prizes of $500 are awarded to the top students from each group.

The next contest is scheduled to take place Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012.

"These online contests attract more than 5,000 participants every time they occur," says Thomas Wolf, Professor of Mathematics. "They are the largest contests of their kind for primary school students in Canada to be offered free of charge."

Elementary teachers and support workers praise the program for the challenging mathematical opportunities that it provides to students. They also say that it motivates students to organize math clubs at their schools because the contest happens at regular intervals throughout the course of the school year.

The contests are free, but registration through a school, public library or community centre is required. Students have one hour to complete the 24 multiple-choice question tests online and marking is done automatically. Results are posted online before the end of the day.

In addition to all of the information related to the contests the Caribou website also serves as a study resource as it offers practice tests and video solutions to selected problems.

- Thomas Wolf, Professor of Mathematics, Brock University, 905-688-5550 x3803; twolf@brocku.ca
- Christina Phillips, Dean's Office, Brock University, 905-688-5550 x5678