Durban — Crunching numbers and thinking caps were on as the top eight students wrote their maths test at Stellar Maths in uMhlanga for the Daily News Maths Whizz of the Year, Powered by Stellar Maths competition on Wednesday.
Dr Sheetal Bhoola, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand and the director at Stellar Maths in Sunningdale, said that hosting the competition played a pivotal role in community development and developing the youth in focus areas of the science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects.
She also said that building up children in Stem subjects gave them long-term life-needed skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking along with the capacity to be innovative.
“We all know this from the onset that technological innovation strives from the basis of developing Stem subjects.
“The idea is also to strengthen the skills of the children and motivate them and build up long-term engineers and scientists that can take South Africa further,” she said.
The operations manager at Stellar and senior primary tutor, Melissa Daniel, said for her the highlight of this competition was when she interacted with the children as she was drawn to them and assisted them with their academic growth.
She said the biggest reward in teaching was to see the children improve in their results and their excitement.
The top eight who made it through from 1 200 applicants and three rounds of maths tests shared their goals with the Daily News.
Sahashra Harinarain, from Crawford, encouraged other pupils not to be afraid of maths but to love it so that they can get used to it.
She also said she planned to be a scientist.
Seth Machanick, from Reddam House uMhlanga, said he loved maths because of all the formulas that one got to learn.
“I’m super curious about everything and that if I want to learn stuff, maths is the easiest way to learn it. When I grow up I want to be an engineer,” said Machanick.
Virat Maharaj, from Chelsea Preparatory, said he loved maths because it was fun and easy. He plans to be a pilot or lawyer.
Milan Garach, from Clifton Preparatory, loves maths because there is always a solution to every problem and one just needs to find it.
Rayyaan de Vasconcellos, from Durban Preparatory High, said he planned to become a physician one day. He loves maths because it is challenging and he likes to be challenged.
Ella Luo, from Glenwood Preparatory, loves maths because it’s fun and it feels like she is unwrapping presents. In her free time she loves brainstorming and watching YouTube videos and she plans to be a teacher one day, she said.
Levi Vermeulen, from Chelsea Preparatory, loves maths because one can always find the answer no matter how hard the question is.
Olivia Senior, from Reddam House uMhlanga, said that she “goes with the flow”.
One of the teachers, Lauren Klingbiel from Clifton Preparatory, said maths was important as it is used in all aspects of life.
She said children needed to be able to solve maths problems, to manipulate numbers and to use them in everyday life.
One of the parents, Nisha Harinarain, said the competition was important because it focused on maths and not sports, and it gave children who were academically inclined the platform to excel.
“Grade 6 is also a good grade to expose them to this competition. I wish for my children to fulfil their dreams and make the most of the world as it is their oyster.”
Her tip for parents is to support the children because schools cannot do it by themselves.
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Daily News