Trail of the month: XV OLIMPIADAS MATEMÁTICAS
For the Trail of the Month for May, we head to the city of Ávila in Spain, located west of Madrid. Here, the Sociedad Castellana y Leonesa de Matemáticas de Ávila created the mathtrail “XV OLIMPIADAS MATEMÁTICAS”. The trail is available in the MathCityMap app under the code 281469 and can be found in the web portal under this link.
The trail consists of a total of 12 tasks dealing with different mathematical topics and was designed in the Parque de los Patos, a park in the heart of Ávila.
Rubén Jiménez Jiménez, a member of the Sociedad Castellana y Leonesa de Matemáticas de Ávila, who was also involved in creating the mathtrail, tells us about the background of the trail in a short interview.
How did you come across the MathCityMap project?
Our association and our work is closely interwoven with the FESPM, one of the largest associations for mathematics teachers in Spain. MathCityMap was presented by FESPM at several meetings and since then we have been using the app and the application in our activities. The trail presented here was created as part of our Mathematics Olympiad, which we are now running for the second time with MathCityMap. It’s always been a very successful experience.
Where is your trail located? What is special about your trail?
This Mathtrail was designed to be used in a park in our city, Ávila, Spain. It’s thought to be used by children between 14 and 16 years old. The environment where we work is an amazing place with a lot of kids’ enterteinment, trees, flowers, a lake, some peculiar litters made of a cilinder shape and many more interesting mathematical objects.
How do you usually use MCM?
We use MathCityMap in groups of five pupils so that the students can work in a collaborative way. We study different Mathematics topics, such as Trigonometry, Congruence, Angles, Solids, Pythagoras, Triangles with the help of MCM.
In order to be able to work on the tasks of our trails, our students are always equipped with the necessary tools, such as a tape measure, folding rule and calculator.
Describe your favorite task on the trail. How can it be solved?
Measuring a cilinder litter is my favorite task of the trail. Although it is quite easy, I like this task because the pupils have to decide which measures they need, in this case, height and diametre.
In my opinion, all tasks are rich to learn Mathematics. Each one offers something different to all students.
Enhorabuena, compañeros de Ávila. Nos alegramos mucho (y también nos da algo de envidia) que tengáis esta repercusión con vuestra ruta para la Olimpiada de Matemáticas.
Un abrazo