Brandon University to host Canada Math Kangaroo Contest

BRANDON, Man. – The John R. Brodie Science Centre will be hopping with students from Grades 1 to 12 on March 20 as Brandon University (BU) welcomes the Canada Math Kangaroo Contest to the city for the first time.

Part of an international competition, the contest will be staged at 39 locations across Canada with Brandon becoming the first Manitoba community outside of Winnipeg to host an event. As a first-time event, the Brandon competition will give prizes to all participants, who are also eligible for awards based on their local or national results.

“We have great programs here at BU in all of the faculties. This is an excellent opportunity to get some students on campus and familiar with the University,” said BU Professor and local contest organizer Gautam Srivastava. “Some of them might surprise themselves. They might not realize how well they do on the national scale.”

Mathematical Kangaroo competitions were introduced in France in 1991 by a pair of university professors, and were named in honour of a popular Australian math contest. Aimed at making math fun for children, the contest has grown to more than 50 countries worldwide, with more than six millions students participating annually. Last year, more than 4,000 Canadians took part.

“Encouraging students to take an interest in math and to challenge themselves to do the best they can is an objective that we support at Brandon University,” said Austin Gulliver, BU’s acting Dean of Science.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the students to our campus and to help them develop skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.”

There are six different versions of the multiple-choice contest—Grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12—and it is available in English or French. The entry fee is $17, and students can be registered by their parents on the not-for-profit corporation’s website, mathkangaroocanada.com. The deadline to register is March 14. 

 

 

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