Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
BRIGHT SPARK Khalifa Al bin Jassim has the mightiest maths mind in Bahrain and is now considered one of the top three on-line number-crunchers in the Middle East.
The Grade 7 student at Abdul Rahman Kanoo International School in Salmabad is a true master of Mathletics - the worldwide computer craze that has invigorated the art of learning arithmetic in schools and at home.
Khalifa notched a staggering score of 297,024 points in a recent week-long challenge competing against thousands of students from throughout the kingdom, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen. He took first place in Bahrain and third throughout the region.
Excited about his achievement and feeling good about having made his school and country proud, Khalifa, 13, from Zayed Town, said: "I love maths because it refreshes the mind. I love problem solving and enjoy getting the answers right.
"Accuracy is important and I use tricks such as dividing a long equation into smaller bits to make the solution easier to find.
"During the challenge I concentrated on just solving the problems with the correct answers as quickly as possible and carried on after school hours sometimes until 3am! At school I would work on the challenge during the breaks and in all the free classes.
"My brother, uncles and parents - we all love maths. I also like science and ICT, especially everything related to technology. However, I prefer working with a paper and pencil as I sometimes type the wrong answer on the keyboard!"
It is estimated that Mathletics is used by more than four million students worldwide and the Middle East Schools Maths Challenge 2010 was the largest free educational competition of its kind, being held completely online, giving all students the chance to gain points for their school while improving their maths skills. It was open to students of all ages from all schools across 14 countries in the Middle East region.
Mathletics enables students play in real time against others from around the world in mental arithmetic challenges. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and one point per correct answer is awarded.
There is a curriculum-based section that is divided into concepts, each of which is comprised of tests of around 24 questions each and practise activities of 10 questions. A student earns 10 points for every correct answer in this section.
Khalifa is the son of Salah Khalifa Al bin Jassim who works at the Crown Prince's Court and Sharifa who is an IT teacher at the University of Bahrain. He has two brothers Faisal, four, and Nasser, nine, who are both Kanoo School students.
Subject co-ordinator Ayman Al-Qudah said that the school spotted Khalifa's talent as a result of last year's contest.
Mr Al-Qudah said that most children love a challenge and Mathletics is another strategy to help youngsters enjoy problem solving. He added: "As teachers we need to adapt to technology and look at new ways of teaching to keep today's children excited and engaged."
Zahra Mohamed, Year 5 student of the British School of Bahrain (BSB), was the next best student from the kingdom. She was ranked 33rd in the Middle East with 107,562 points. Close behind in 34th position was Salman Ali Salman Hussain from Kanoo School with 106,797 points. He was the fourth student from Bahrain who made it into the top 100.
Among the Top 50 Classes in the Middle East, Year 8 of Kanoo School finished eighth with 470,176 points.
BSB had three classes in the top 50 - 5I in the 13th place with 381,126 points, 5A in the 27th place with 266,752 and 5M in 45th place with 219,242 points.
Bahrain Bayan School also shared glory with three classes making it to the top 50 - Grade 5 came 18th with 338,356 points, Grade 3 came 23rd with 295, 385 points and Grade 4 ended 26th with 269,617 points.
Do you enjoy maths? Answer this fun question:
The soccer store is having a sale. Everything is 20 per cent off. Hamad bought a pair of goalie gloves and some shinguards. The original prices were BD30 for the gloves and BD15 for the shin guards. How much did Hamad save altogether?
A) BD9 B) BD15 C) BD18 D) BD36
