Kangaroo Math Competition 2022 Award Ceremony: “More than Just a Competition, it’s a Movement”
Jointly reported by:
Khoo Xin Yi Sr1ScA
Grace Low Shing Wei Sr2ScA
Following its 10th Anniversary, the award ceremony of the 2022 Malaysian Kangaroo Math Competition was held on the 12th of November at Kuen Cheng High School. The award ceremony was split into 2 sessions, the first being for the Pre-ecolier, Ecolier and Benjamin categories, while the second session was for the Cadet, Junior and Student categories.The ceremony started at 10:00 a.m. with the entrance of the VIP guests of the day along with an opening speech by the emcee. A general report regarding the competition was given regarding the amount of participants over the years and activities held by the organisation over the course of the pandemic. The director of Kangaroo Math Malaysia, Mr. Suhaimi Ramly, then gave his thanks to all the organising committee members and participants of the competition.
(Photo 1: General Report)
Following up was a speech given by the President of National STEM Association Malaysia, Dato’ Prof. Dr. Noraini Binti Idris, whereby she emphasised the importance of maths in a logical standpoint of education. Before giving out the awards, a short video was played as the organisation’s kangaroo mascot entertained the audience.
(Photo 2: Speech by Dato’ Prof. Dr. Noraini Binti Idris)
It was then time for the award ceremony for the Pre-ecolier and Ecolier category. Awards were given to the Grand Prix (high score) and gold medallists of their respective categories.
Kangaroo awards for Benjamin category were given before break time. Then, parents and students enjoyed their lunch, which was sold at the food trucks. At the same time, there were 7 Game Booths set up in the canteen, including Colour Cup Mania, Jenga, Paper Airplane Toss, Ball Maze Battle, Card Matching Game, Stacking Cup Battle and 2D Rubric Match.
The second session of the award ceremony continued after the two-hour break. There were miniature piano and guitar performances along with Teacher Talks where qualified lecturers and professors gave their take on the education of maths.
One of the incredible speakers of the Teachers Talk, Mr. Noor Fahmi Zaharuddin, shared his tips on “Making Math Classrooms Filled with Wonders”. He kicked off by expressing his sadness due to the declining number of students furthering their studies in STEM subjects. His biggest goal was to cultivate students to enjoy the process of learning maths and make his class more livingly. He mentioned the Domino Effect which states that when a change is made it will eventually activate a chain reaction. Therefore, he encouraged the teachers to start the movement by putting in effort because they will surely see some beautiful changes at last.
(Photo 3: Domino Effect as Explained by Mr. Noor Fahmi Zaharuddin)
Moving on was the award ceremony for the Cadet, Junior and Student categories, with several awards being given to students from Kuen Cheng High School too.
(Photo 4: Award Ceremony for Student Category)
Last but not least, Mr. Jonathan A/L Ramachandran, a Freelance Math Olympiad Coach had a fruitful sharing session with the students. He introduced the four main branches of mathematics that students need to master at the secondary level. While being asked about the reasons why students hate mathematics as a subject, he believes that it was due to the strict teachers and the complexity of maths questions where it takes multiple steps to the right answer. Having said that, he thinks that it is the teacher’s utmost responsibility to make the class more interesting.
The award ceremony drew to an end earlier than expected at 3:30 p.m. It was an honour that we had an interview with one of the Grand Prix winners from our school. She is Chan Rou Jing from Sr2ComA. “Maths can be really fascinating sometimes, especially when you realise that one thing can be related to another, and you’d never imagined the two could have anything to do with one another,” she said. According to her, she was surprised to find out she won the Grand Prix as she never thought she would have won it. Talking about the challenges she faced in the competition, she said it was more about speed and how to stay calm during the competition. Lastly, she advised juniors to always be steady in facing challenges.
(Photo 5: Chan Rou Jing from Sr2ComA)