CKSTEM FAMILY CHALLENGES
As children's first teachers, family members are crucial to student success. And the more adults become engaged in their children's education, the greater the chances that children will succeed. Hence, our goal is to engage families in the learning process through these fun challenges.
CIMC 2024 Practice Questions
You can now access problem-solving questions from the most innovative math contest in the world. You may also use these questions as fun family challenges. If you want to review solutions or try the mental math section of the contest, please do so here.
Let us know your experience in solving these questions. Which question was most engaging for your family?
7 Habits of the Champions
Interestingly, champions don't have any magic wand. Most successful people focus on developing good habits. We recommend you work on the following 7 habits:
- Create and follow a schedule
- Set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals
- Put first thing first (prioritize and respect priorities)
- Believe in yourself
- Step out of your comfort zone
- Don't give up, and keep yourself motivated
- Unleash your potential through continuous and focused learning.
How many of these habits do you already have? Which ones are missing? What can you do to develop missing habits so that you can also be a champion?
7 Problem-Solving Techniques
One of the primary reasons people have trouble with problem-solving is that there is no single procedure that works all the time — each problem is slightly different. Also, problem-solving requires practical knowledge about the specific situation. If you misunderstand either the problem or the underlying situation, you may make mistakes or incorrect assumptions. One of our main goals here is to help you become better problem solvers.
- Solve a simpler problem
- Look for a pattern
- Visualize and draw
- Estimate and check
- Work Backwards
- Breakdown the problem
- Learn and apply learning to remember
You can also learn in detail about the problem solving techniques here.
7 Principles of Communication
Our communication training starts as soon as we are born. It needs no language. A newborn kid starts communicating by crying. Then the terrible two come, and tantrums are a big part of communication. In a nutshell, language is essential, but communication is a lot more complex and the most critical aspect of our lives. These are some of the crucial principles that will help you become an excellent communicator.
- Projection
- Pace
- Pitch
- Posture
- Poetry
- Poise
- Adaptability in learning
Do you understand these principles? Do you also understand the importance of these?
CIMC 2023 Practice Questions
This contest is designed to challenge and promote problem-solving, critical thinking, reasoning, and abstract or spatial thinking for the students. Learning mathematics through problem-solving activities is the most efficient way for students to develop mathematical skills that will prepare them for the future.
You can learn more about these contests here and enroll for free to learn, compete, and win.
What is the height?
Reading scales and understanding units are crucial for the kids. This problem could also facilitate a good discussion on a critical problem-solving strategy of breaking down a big problem into a few smaller problems. It's always easier to solve smaller problems. Parents may also create a few variations to explain the concept by connecting it with kids. This creates an emotional bond and helps them learn faster, e.g., how much taller are you than the robot? You can also discuss different units of measurement e.g. inches, cm, meters etc. Let us know how the discussion goes with your family. We hope you will have fun discussing this.
Travel to Canada!
Visualization skills are critical for developing the young mind. This beautiful problem provides families with good discussion points at their dinner table. It's an excellent paper-folding problem and presents opportunities for parents to discuss places they want to see in Canada next. Can you name all Canadian provinces and territories? Don't hesitate to use Google to refresh your memory about the Canadian map.
Now you can see how we can kill many birds using just one fantastic problem. Let us know how the discussion goes at your dinner table. If you like this problem, you may want children to participate in our Canadian Innovation Contests (CIC). This problem was given to the student in the 2023 version of the CIC Math contest.
Which Cookie would you eat?
Suppose you love chocolate. The top of each cookie is covered with the same thickness of chocolate. If you wanted to choose the cookie with more chocolate, which one would you pick? Think about this as well:
- Some people say that a coastline has infinite length. What could they mean by this?
- When people talk about buying so many yards of carpet, they are really talking about square yards; with yards of concrete or sand, they are really talking about cubic yards.
Do people with big hands have larger angles between their fingers?
Estimate the measures of the angles between your fingers when you spread out your hand.
Angles are important geometric shapes. They are used in designing many things from airplanes to golf clubs. Download challenge for additional details and questions.
Which one would you buy?
Take two identical sheets of paper. [An ordinary sheet of paper measures 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches.] Roll one sheet into a short cylinder and the other into a tall cylinder. Set them both on a flat surface. Does one hold more than the other?
Making visual estimates and finding volumes are useful skills. Designers and engineers use these skills to find economical ways to package and protect items.
