300 Word Problems for Second Grade Contests

206 Pages·2013·3.12 MB·English

by  Udar Nivol

The Math Experiment
Why this book?
The experiment and organization of the book
Week 0 – Getting started with the Math Club
Week 1
Week 1 Letter to the Parents
Week 1 Story – Apollo 13
Week 1 Curriculum – More or Less
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 1 Three Little Birds
Week 1 Angry Bird
Week 2
Week 2 Letter to the Parents
Week 2 Story – The Number of Days in Each Month
Week 2 Curriculum – Dates and Times
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 2 Three Little Birds
Week 2 Angry Bird
Week 3
Week 3 Letter to the Parents
Week 3 Story – Fibonacci Numbers
Week 3 Curriculum – Patterns
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 3 Three Little Birds
Week 3 Angry Bird
Week 4
Week 4 Letter to the Parents
Week 4 Story – Terence Tao
Week 4 Curriculum - Fractions
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 4 Three Little Birds
Week 4 Angry Bird
Week 5
Week 5 Letter to the Parents
Week 5 Story - Carl Friedrich Gauss
Week 5 Curriculum – Ordered Lists
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 5 Three Little Birds
Week 5 Angry Bird
Week 6
Week 6 Letter to the Parents
Week 6 Story - Melanie Wood
Week 6 Curriculum – Introduction to Multiplication
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 6 Three Little Birds
Week 6 Angry Bird
Week 7
Week 7 Letter to the Parents
Week 7 Story – The International Math Olympiad
Week 7 Curriculum – Introduction to Division
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 7 Three Little Birds
Week 7 Angry Bird
Week 8
Week 8 Letter to the Parents
Week 8 Story – Srinivasa Ramanujan
Week 8 Curriculum – Number Riddles
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Week 8 Three Little Birds
Week 8 Angry Bird
Math Competitions
Noetic Math Contest
Math Kangaroo
Continental Mathematics League
Rock and Roll – More Practice Problems
Final Note – The Results of the Experiment
Solutions
Week 1
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 2
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 4
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 5
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 6
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 7
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Week 8
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Three Little Birds
Angry Bird
Rock and Roll – More Practice Problems
About the author
Udar Nivol is an IT Analyst specialized in delivering data warehousing and
business intelligence applications serving a variety of financial services
including leasing, insurance, banking, finance intelligence, anti-money
laundering.
He was a Math Olympian during his school years in Eastern Europe. When his
nd
son turned 7 and started the 2 grade, Udar realized that Math was not taught in
schools as it used to be when he was at his son’s age. He thought it was his
responsibility as a parent to ensure his kids were exposed to at least the same
level of education as he was. This book is the result of the weekly meetings he
had with his son and his son’s colleagues. And, as the name of the book
suggests, it is an experiment. We’ll see how far along can a group of smart kids
can go when they are exposed to more difficult math word problems and
compete in Math contests. This is the first book of the Math Experiment series.
Please join them and read about their achievements, challenges, and milestones.
Week by week. Year by year.
Udar currently lives along with his wife and 2 kids in Michigan, enjoying the
Great Lakes’ serene beaches in the summer, and the crisp, starry and clear nights
of Upper Peninsula in the winter.
For Gene, Sydney, Trenton, Vlad and their unbridled minds.
Why this book?
“There is something wrong happening with our kids”
It was the summer before my son entered the second grade when I first thought
of writing this book. The Olympic Games were going on at that time and all the
sport fans were glued to their TV sets or checking the results online. We were
watching the games amazed by the determination of those athletes, and I was
telling my son how hard they worked to get there, how many hours they spent in
trainings and how many things they gave up. He watched them in awe and was
already putting together a short list of personal heroes: Michael Phelps, Usain
Bolt, Rafael Nadal, Hope Solo, Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin…And while my
son was plowing the Internet in search for his new heroes’ birth dates and places,
training schedules, hobbies and schools they attended, I was thinking of the
coming fall. Second grade. I felt at loss of how I was going to handle that. I have
to admit that I was afraid, because I looked around me and I realized that the
kids nowadays don’t learn as we used to do when we were like them. I had
desperately tried to find reasons for that. I read dozens of books, talked to child
psychologists, parents, teachers, leaders of homeschool organization, scientists,
but I can’t say I have a definite answer. What I can say for sure is that a lot of
things have changed since I was at my son’s age and we are all witnesses to
them– culture, technology, entertainment, attention span, food, curriculum,
responsibilities, the pace of day to day life.
There is one statement that I hear quite often and has already become a cliché:
"there is something wrong happening with our kids' Math and Science education
nowadays". I hear it in talk shows, presidential campaigns, on National Public
Radio, you name it. And the more we hear about it, the more we refer to it as a
fact. There's really not much we can do about it, it's just a fact.
“I think we have become complacent. We've sort of lost our way. We are lagging
the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways. “
- Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education
Some people started to look at other countries, particularly in Asia, to understand
what it is that they do better than the US.