When I was in high school, we were encouraged to take part in math contests. Each grade had its own contest. I thoroughly enjoyed these contests, most of all because of the competition it engendered between myself and my peers. We would always compare our results with one another when our test scores came out.
While I think that these types of math contests are positive, I think that the Math Fair approaches also has many positive qualities. The fact that the Math Fair is not as competitive will certainly open it up to those students who may feel disuaded by the traditional math "contest". I know that, in high school, I often felt like my performance on the math contests was inadequate - it was always the same 2 or 3 students who got the top scores. A math contest would open up the possibility of all students having fun with math, not just the "best" students. The Math Fair, I think, would encourage creativity and innovativeness, qualities which are really useful to develop at a young age. The Math Fair would incorporate art (designing the poster), problem-solving, creativity, and oral presentation skills (for when the students present their problem). For all these reasons, I would support running a Math Fair in my school. I think that if I were to run such a fair, I would try to stress the communal aspect of it - I would encourage students to solve their problems by collaborating with others, and to present their problem in groups of 2 or 3, in order to cultivate delegation and inter-personal skills.
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