Mar 15, 2024

We have opened submissions for the Preliminary Round of the Canadian Innovation Debate Contest (CIDC). If you or your school is participating in this contest, please review the details here: https://learn.competitivekids.org/course/view.php?id=169#sectionid-447-title. The last day for submission is April 14^th.

We hope you are having a good March break (if you are in Canada). We can see that most of you managed to do a lot of practice, as we noticed a record number of problems were solved this week. Thank You for your dedication and support. We can provide a suitable platform, but it does not make a difference until you are motivated to use it. We are glad that some of you are making an excellent use of it.

Here are the Top 5 students on the practice leaderboard (many more are doing excellent work as well):

1. Ayaan (Fieldcrest Elementary School, Canada)
2. Neevan P (Aylesbury Public School, Canada)
3. Hayden B (Elizabeth Simcoe PS, Canada)
4. Matthew (Fieldcrest Elementary School, Canada)
5. Sithuki S (Pristine Private School, UAE) 

The Top Schools (Teachers can motivate students to practice. Please remind them.):

1. Arthur Day Middle School, Canada
2. Fieldcrest Elementary School, Canada
3. Pristine Private School, Canada
4. Havergal College, UAE
5. St. Charles Garnier, Canada

The CIMC contest is starting in 37 days. Now is a good time to start practicing if you have not already done so. This week’s practice set is focused primarily on elementary concepts. You will be surprised that these simple ideas can create many complex problems. Hence, we are trying to achieve the following with this practice set.

• We understand that grade 2 students have limited reading abilities. Hence, we want to give some practice questions to the grade 2 teachers and parents so that they can help children understand the concepts. We recognize that some questions will be hard for young students. In competition, we need to push boundaries a bit, and that's where lots of learning happens. Please use the given set to meet the needs of your students. They don't need to understand all the problems. Even If they learn one new concept, it's good progress. It's easy to create similar problems. Hence, you may challenge them by creating problems similar to what is given in the handout.
• If you are in higher grades, we recommend trying these problems without reviewing the solutions. You can expect complex problems based on these concepts. We encourage you to design complex problems yourself. It's fun to create good problems. If you are very proud of a new problem that you created, don't hesitate to share it with us. If the problem is innovative, we will highlight it. We will indeed challenge you on these basic concepts. We want to ensure that you don't complain later that we didn't inform you. There will be other complex problems, too.

We don't want students to be surprised by the contest. Hence, this year, we are trying to inform you what to expect in the contest. It's a problem-solving contest, so you will be expected to solve the problems. Our goal is to teach some problem-solving strategies so that you have fun doing the contest with CKROBO and CKROBI. We all have to solve a lot of problems in our life. Why don't we learn to have fun while solving problems?

Mar 8, 2024

Thank you once again for working hard for the Canadian Innovation Math Contest. The students are solving thousands of problems every day, which is incredible. Keep up the excellent work. If you have a March break, you can set a routine to practice daily.

Teachers, please note that we don’t send emails to the students who sign up with their schools. We need your help sharing relevant content with them so they are not left behind. You can also share contest details with your colleagues so that they can take advantage of this opportunity.

What’s New:

We have added a drill for middle and high school students to improve their visualization of area problems. You may be tempted to use fractions to solve these problems. We suggest relating areas using ratios. You can solve all problems by just using integers. This is our recommendation for your March break. Problems may appear difficult initially. These may require you to try outside your comfort zone. Once you get the hang of it, you will love these problems. We have also posted a couple of recorded training sessions for you to review. Advanced students in elementary schools can also try these problems. Please get comfortable getting out of your comfort zone.

What Hot:

Po-Shen Loh, the most famous math professor in the world currently, will visit the Greater Toronto Area on April 20th. He is a social entrepreneur and inventor, working across the spectrum of mathematics, education, and healthcare worldwide. He is a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University and served a decade-long term as the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team from 2013 to 2023.

He wants to talk to you about how to outsmart AI. He will also share what you can do to get admission to the TOP universities in the USA. CKSTEM is hosting a free event for you on April 20^th. CKSTEM is inviting you to meet Po-Shen Loh. The event is almost sold out. We only have 50 spots left. Hence, hurry up if you are interested. You can read and reserve your spot at https://www.competitivekids.org/outsmarting-ai.

You will also have an opportunity to meet with our team in person. We will have some surprises for you at the event as well. We are looking forward to seeing you at the event.

Worth Mentioning:

We noticed that some practice sets stopped working after our last system upgrade. We are sorry for the inconvenience. We have fixed the issues. You can try all the quizzes now. If you notice an issue with any quiz or question, please email us at infor@ckstem.org. Our team fixes issues quickly as thousands of you are doing practice. By reporting issues, you are not only helping us but helping thousands of other kids as well. We appreciate your help and support.

We are also working on adding more content targeted at grade 2 students.

Please remember that the contest will have roughly ~50% of the problems from the practice sets according to your grade level. You can improve your chances to win by practicing. The other ~50% will be based on problem-solving, where you will be required to help CKROBO and CKROBI by solving their problems on our planet Earth. This will be the most innovative and fun contest of your life… if you love to solve the problems of our loving robots. We are committed to redefining math contests to make these a fun-filled experience.

Feb 29, 2024

We are amazed to see the number of students enrolled this year. Moreover, seeing students spend hundreds of hours practicing in CIMC motivates us to share more with you. We appreciate your hard work and commitment.

We have a lot of fantastic practice sets to learn the magic of math. You should review the trick if you take over 10 seconds to do the following challenges. Give practice sets a try, as they may teach you something cool. Please note that you can attempt questions as much as you like. If you can do these challenges in 10 seconds or less, try Kahoots, which we have posted in the contest.

We also suggest working with your classmates to do these together. It is more fun learning as a group. You may master a trick and teach it to your friends. Your friends could do the same. It’s called a Win-Win-Win for you, your teachers, and your school. Successful people define their luck through hard work.

Can you create a Win-Win-Win situation for your school?

10 Second Challeges

• Compute 526 – 184 [Rapidly Subtract by Adding, Rapidly Subtract by Altering]
• The squares of two consecutive positive integers differ by 25. What is the smaller of the two integers? [Practice Drill]
• In a lucky draw, winners will get the money equal to the number written on a token they pick from a jar. This jar has tokens with the first 9 odd numbers written on them. What total money will winners get if all tokens are given away? [Practice Drill]
• Compute 20.5 x 2.05 [Square numbers ending in 5, Rapidly Square]
• Compute 8.8 × 9.9 [Multiply by 99, Multiply by 99 (decimals)]
• Compute 10.1 * 0.67 [Multiply by 101, Multiply by 101 (decimals)]
• Compute 790 * 8.1 [Multiply when the difference is 2]
• What is the difference in the areas of two square fields of lengths of 33 feet and 67 feet? [Difference of Squares, Using Squares in Problem Solving]
• Compute 24− 23 + 22 – 21 +…− 13 + 12 – 11. [Learning from Gauss]
• When CKROBO gets hiccups, it takes 2 seconds to beep thrice at regular intervals. How long does it take him to beep five times at the same intervals? [Gaps & Intervals]
• In a row of 84 robots, there are four coins of 25 cents between every two robots. How many dollars are there altogether? [Gaps & Intervals]

There is a lot more for you to practice in CIMC at https://learn.competitivekids.org/course/view.php?id=447. We will have a few special awards for the students committed to learning. It’s your efforts which matter the most. Contests are just a mini milestone in a journey of fulfilling your dreams. Keep dreaming, but practice when you are not dreaming to help you fulfill your dreams!

If you are a teacher, please pass the relevant information to your students. Few schools have set a schedule to practice together. We highly recommend setting enrichment goals for your class and motivating students to help each other in their journey toward Win-Win-Win. Awards for teachers and schools are based on the joint performance of students to encourage teamwork.

Feb 14, 2024

We are excited to see the number of problems solved in the Canadian Math Innovation Contest practice content. It’s good to see that our efforts are appreciated and that kids enjoy the problems. If you have not started practicing, now is the best time.

What’s New?

• Kahoot for CIMC 2023 Easy Questions (this may appear hard initially, but with some practice, you may learn these quickly.)
• Practice Set #4 - Substitution Arithmetic (What happens when we create new rules of arithmetic? You can expect a few questions on this topic in the contest. Each question has a detailed solution. With some practice, you can master this topic. You will find it very useful.)
• Practice Set #5 - Money Matters: (we think this topic needs no explanation… money matters even in the CIMC contest.)

What’s Hot?

• CIMC 2024’s theme is robotics. Our very special CKROBO led last year’s contest. He felt lonely on our planet Earth. He was sad, sometimes mad, and agitated. Thanks to Valentine’s Day, he found CKROBI today. Contest problem-solving questions will revolve around the life experience of CKROBO and CKROBI. We promise you the most innovative and fun math contest in the world. This will make you laugh and giggle even during the contest. We are eagerly waiting to present a fun-filled world of problem-solving through our amazing robotic characters.
• Have you noticed hidden tricks in rapid arithmetic sections? These tricks make some kids look like mathmagicians. Magicians don’t have supernatural powers. They are good at remembering and using tricks. You can be a mathmagician, too. However, this requires you to understand and remember tricks as well. Can you calculate 89x91 in less than five seconds? If you know it, you are already on a path to becoming a mathmagician. If you can’t, you can learn this trick and show it to your friends and family. Sometimes, it is not bad to exhibit our tricks to others. We recommend you work on multiplication drills that are appropriate for your grade. You will need these during the contest.

That’s it for this week. We will see you next week with more news. Keep practicing as there is no substitute for it to become a great mathmagician.

Thank you again from our selfless team, which brings this and much more to you without any cost. If you love this contest, don’t forget to spread love to others by sharing about it. Giving back to our community is the best celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Team @ CKSTEM