Math Camp Week

Whew!! We survived! I don't know when I've had a more intense but rewarding week.
The students arrived at Bahir Dar University early Sunday afternoon and we spent every day from 7:30 am to 9 pm with them for seven days. In addition to teaching classes, writing a report and interviewing students, there were lots of administrative details to take care of. The theme of the camp was "Learning Maths Through Fun" and the kids really did have fun. Classes were not about traditional math but instead the instructors introduced fun activities like programming computer games, playing sports games that taught math concepts, learning modular arithmetic and spherical geometry through hands on exercises, etc. It was eye opening for the kids as before they had just thought of math as a hard subject. They left the  camp not only thinking math can be fun but also more confident in their own abilities and seeing lots of ways math will be helpful for their futures. I learned a lot of math myself and was pretty pleased until the final session on tesselations which threw me for a loop.

After dinner each evening, we taught the kids a different card game and played the game with them.  I learned that girls don't play cards in Ethiopia but it's okay in math camp as it's educational. The students were ages 13-17 and were extremely well behaved. They were all motivated to take full advantage of the week. Although the kids were all from local HSs, they all slept in the university dorms during camp week and adjusted well even though most of them had never been away from home before. We had lots of logistical problems like lack of electricity in computer rooms (thankfully that got resolved quickly) and in the library which was our main meeting room (emergency lighting was hooked up but I feel like I have permanent eye strain)  and many downpours which made getting the kids to the dining room difficult. But everyone worked together to make everything work as smoothly as possible.

We were able to have long conversations with many of the kids and learned a great deal about Ethiopian history and culture. On Thursday, we took the students on a trip to Tis Abey Falls, which are on the Nile near its source at Lake Tana.  It was the first time many of the kids had gone there and they were delighted to see them. They were truly joyful-big smiles all day.  We became very close to many of the kids and it was very sad to say goodbye to the kids.

This sign was behind our hotel door

So we opened the drawer and sure enough, there were condoms. Much more useful than a bible?

Donkeys are very hard working in Bahir Dar

Street scenes in Bahir Dar

On the university campus

Coffee bars such as this one line the streets in Bahir Dar

The university had graduation while we were there.

The trees here are beautiful.

The students enjoyed the card games.

Get to know you activities

3 of our students in front of very colorful new dorms being built

Learning computer commands

Computer class

Doing a Boids simulation on a sports field

Learning functions in a fun way

Mel teaching

On the bus to the Tis Abey Falls

Scenes on the way to the Falls

Our buses had to go through this village to get to the Falls but a funeral procession was blocking the way.

More scenes on the way to the Falls

Playing cards on the bus

At the falls

The bridge to the falls built by the Italians during their four year occupation of Ethiopia

The Falls

(Scary) suspension bridge built by the Swiss

The students in front of the falls.

The students were typical teenagers in many ways.

Drying peppers on the way back from the falls

Most of the students shirts were colors of the Ethiopian flag.

The house leaders during the closing ceremony. A lot of the students spoke at the event, unfortunately in Amharic but we did get some translations later.

My team was the green team, Pythagoras and we won. Here is Yonaton, a delightful and very smart boy, accepting the trophy.

Yalemwork

Departure time