European Student Math Challenge: 40 Classes Collaborate Across Borders

Initially, there were 40 classes from Trentino and Desenzano: the Italian representation of a force of 20,000 young students, ranging from third grade elementary to third grade middle school, from various nations—those around the Alps, France and Switzerland, but also Israel and Australia—engaged in mathematical challenges.

The Mathematical Challenge and Methodology

But it’s not just simple arithmetic: the students are presented with six or seven problems, developed in collaboration with the mathematics departments of Università di Parma and Université de Neuchâtel. In 50 minutes, the entire class— not an individual— is called to think, invent, discuss, and compare ideas in search of one or more solutions.

The 12 classes that competed the other afternoon at Sighele are the shortlist from the original 40. The best works will be selected in Parma, and their authors invited to participate in a broader, European-scale competition. Thanks to the internet, of course, which provides this virtual common table for people separated by thousands of kilometers.

Organization and Participants

The initiative, on a local basis, is led by Professor Roberto Battisti, responsible for one of the territory-wide mathematics centers managed by Iprase. About thirty teachers of the subject collaborate on this effort: the other afternoon, 17 of them were involved in the immediate review of the submitted solutions.

There is no winner nor a strict ranking: the most important thing is truly participation.