Math Olympiad for Elementary School Students

Course Description

Description

This Math Olympiad course is designed to teach the major strategies of problem solving, to foster mathematical creativity, and to stimulate enthusiasm and love for the types of problems that students encounter in competitive mathematics. Each week students explore a different math topic or problem-solving strategy in depth and practice non-routine contest problems. The web-based whiteboard provides interactive experiences for students. Students and instructors meet weekly on the whiteboard for problem solving, clarification of concepts, and group sessions.

Topics include:

• drawing a picture or diagram
• using deduction
• simplification
• pattern recognition
• making an organized list
• making a table
• guess and check
• working backwards
• basic geometry
• estimation

Materials Needed

There are no required materials for this course.

List of Topics

This course is designed to teach the major strategies of problem solving, to foster mathematical creativity, and to stimulate enthusiasm and love for the types of problems that students encounter in competitive mathematics. Students explore math topics and strategies in depth, and practice non-routine contest problems. The Web-based whiteboard provides interactive experiences for students. Students and instructors meet on the whiteboard for problem solving, clarification of concepts, and group sessions.

The following problem solving strategies will be covered in the course:

• Guess and Check
• Draw a Picture or Diagram
• Make a Table
• Make an Organized List
• Elimination
• Simplification
• Substitution
• Working Backwards
• Estimation
• Number Sense
• Deductive Reasoning
• Basic Algebraic Processes
• Basic Processes of Geometry

Whiteboard Session Times

Whiteboard sessions for this course are held every Tuesday at the following times:
(US Eastern time zone)

• Session 1: 6:15 pm - 7:15 pm
• Session 2: 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
• Session 3: 8:45 pm - 9:45 pm

Please Note: Quizzes and problems are due on Sundays.

Whiteboard Demo

Click on the image below to view the Whiteboard demo:

System Requirements

All CTYOnline courses require a properly-maintained computer with Internet access and a recent-version web browser (such as Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer). This course does not require Adobe Flash. Students are expected to be familiar with standard computer operations (e.g. login, cut & paste, email attachments, etc).

This course uses an online mathematical whiteboard for individual or group discussions with the instructor. The whiteboard web site requires cookies, popup windows, and the Java Runtime Environment. (Note: iOS & Android devices cannot run Java applets.)