Hunfalvy Bilingual Secondary School

Let's play, but how?

2022-1-HU01-KA121-SCH-000062316

"The project was funded by the European Commission. The views expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission."     

Course organiser

Hungary Expert

Rovinj

30 July - 5 August 2023

REPORT

Where was I and why (what was the motivation)?

I took an Erasmus+ course in Rovinj, a beautiful city in Croatia. Last year I was on an Erasmus+ course in mathematics in the same place. This year, I wanted to continue this and develop my competences by working on new topics. I received professional support for teaching grade 12 maths.

About the course

I attended the course "Let's play, but how - Strategies and tournament organisation". On Sunday afternoon, after registration, we met the participants and our mentor. Sándor Dobos, the coaching teacher of the Hungarian student Olympians in mathematics, encouraged the participants in his course to think continuously for a week. We started the first day with a warm-up discussion, getting to know each other and the course theme. Over dinner we got to know each other and the participants of the parallel courses better.

We explored two topics in parallel, running into increasingly difficult problems. The first was how to organise and organise different types of tournaments, the second was how to solve strategic games and how to communicate them clearly.

During the course, the conditions for organising tournaments were laid down, the listing of matches and their organisation into rounds were considered. By type, the organisation of the football championship, the multileague championship and the clay motorcycle championship received more emphasis, but from here we can easily generalise the problem. We have played the strategy games ourselves, dealing with two important types, and then using Grundy numbers to find more general solutions to more difficult problems.

How will I use it in my school?

To implement the games online I extended my knowledge of excell by using macros and some excel programming. With my knowledge of tournament organisation I can help the PE teachers and broaden the graph theory and combinatorics knowledge of my students. I will use strategy games as a motivational task in math classes, while developing students' precise communication skills. I will organise tournaments for students using the Winner app, and week after week, students will play the games they learnt in the course.

Afternoon programmes, EU principles

We got to know each other on the course, over dinner and on a dolphin watching boat trip. We visited Rovinj and its surroundings, the beach in the afternoons. For sustainability, during the course, instead of disposable bottles, we were given vending machines from which we could fill our own canteens with water.   

Short conclusion

Overall, the course was full of learning, excellent programmes and sightseeing. If you want to improve your maths and strategy games skills, this course is definitely worth taking. In addition, I would like to participate in job shadowing in the new academic year to get to know the culture of teaching mathematics in other countries.