Driving mathematical talent

The University of Azuay together with CEDIA (Ecuadorian Corporation for the Development of Research and the Academy) presented the first call to participate in the pilot plan in order to form the group ESTALMAT (Stimulus for mathematical talent) in the period 2019 - 2020 .

This project has been developed in Spain from 1998 and was created with the support of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, and sponsored by the Higher Council for Scientific Research.

The objective of ESTALMAT in our province is to stimulate mathematical talent through extracurricular classes for students of fiscal, fiscomisional and private schools of Azuay between eighth and tenth grade, with the collaboration of outstanding professors who will also receive ongoing training.

On the morning of Saturday 18 in May a selection test was developed in the 103 and 105 classrooms, while informative lectures to the parents were given in the auditorium of the Faculty of Science and Technology.

"The course will be free, therefore, there is only a number of places between 10 and 15 students, which will be selected from the test with non-traditional exercises separated from traditional teaching, where the child's ability to solve will be assessed. a problem, we do not care if the child does not reach the answer, we want to know what he thought and how he came up with it, "explained Andrés Pérez, project coordinator at the UDA.

This initiative aims to detect those students with special predisposition and ability for mathematics to promote interest and skill in the mathematical task.

The training activities of the project will be free for those selected, whose parents or legal guardians must commit to take them and pick them up at the hours and days agreed, as well as their participation in the two annual regional events of the project: Initial Camp and Encuentro de Students.

The 19 of September will be the beginning of the program and the expectation is to have a group of children who want to learn mathematics.

The University of Azuay provides logistical support, academic endorsement and contributes with the physical space with CEDIA.

"So, what we are interested in here is not that they improve their performance, but that the children are really clear that mathematics has multiple options, allowing them to reach beyond what they imagine. It is possible that many of these children do not understand social environments, but for them it is easier to put it in a mathematical context where they will understand it much more easily, "said Pérez.

The teachers who will teach the courses have been selected from several recognized institutions in the country:

Rodrigo Velasco with Terunas Pitagóricas, Oswaldo Hurtado with Papiroflexia, Diego Izquierdo with Cryptography, Marcela Espinoza Ambrosi with Problems, Juan Urdiales with Golden Number, Andrés Pérez with Fractals and Numbers of Nature, Esteban Calderón with Geogebra, Rubén Lema with Mathematics, Gustavo Álvarez with Mathematics and Cars and finally Rubén Segura with Paradoxes.

In addition, Perez said that this course is taught by people who like to teach mathematics in a different way to children, to make them really understand that mathematics is a base of society and that from this they can work in any field.

The Coordinator of the ESTALMAT project in the UDA assured that the idea is to replicate what was done in Spain and adapt it to our conditions. This is an ambitious project that we intend to follow every year and remain in force, therefore, Rafael Crespo, a Spanish professor at the University of Valencia, is advising you throughout this process.

"This course seeks to stimulate and identify young people who have mathematical talents in ages between 12 and 14 years, which is the age where they begin to have abstraction in the brain. That is, this course is for lovers of mathematics and have skills, because it is going to speak in a complex language that could be understood by an ordinary child. It is for the child who is good at math, but not necessarily the one who has better grades, "Andrés Pérez concluded.