Maths prodigy

[Seastallion]

I teach maths to an M4 and an M1 class, a special class for the "good students" (the program is called SMA). Indeed most of the kids are very good. Smart interested and quick to learn. It's a joy teaching them.

One lad in my M1 class appears to be exceptional. Not just with learning, but he has a talent for seeing patterns (a great gift to see what is not obvious to others and indicative of a good left-right hemisphere balance).

I first noticed him because he always got everything right, always asked the good questions, the intelligent questions.

A few weeks ago, I showed the class a "trick". It involves the Fibonacci series algorithm but instead of starting with 1, 1, you get Ss to choose the first two numbers randomly between 1 and 9.

7, 2, say.

Treat it like a fibonacci series, thus 7, 2, 9, 11, 20, 31, 51.....etc.for ten iterations.

The trick is, the 7th number multiplied by eleven, will always equal the ten numbers summed, no matter what two digits you start with (and of course, the sum will be different in each case). I did it 3 times on the board, quickly multiplying the seventh number by 11 and I would get the sum before any kid could do it on a calculator.

I then got the Ss to pair up and do their own series but not to tally...and I walked around glancing at each series and giving the sum in a matter of seconds.

They were impressed.

Nong Ice, however was intrigued. He knew I wasn't doing rapid addition in my head. He knew it was a trick. By the time I got to his table, he had done 4 different series and totaled them. When I reached him, he announced that he knew what I was doing...multiplying the seventh number by 11.

How do you know? I asked.

I just saw something and tried it out...it works.

So from 3 examples on the board and his own 4 examples, he saw the pattern.

Here's my point; I think this boy should have a mentor to guide him to higher things. I do not think I would be good enough as I only did first year maths at uni.

Any suggestions from passionate teachers? It would be a shame for this brain to stagnate.

[aidenai]

Let his Thai teachers sign him up at IPST.

[gerryBScot]

I would go for it yourself and not underestimate your own abilities. It seems you already command the student's respect. It might be fun if you have the time and inclination to research material for him. I couldn't really advise on contents as it is out of my league but I am sure there will be some interesting online resources. I recommend you look at nrich.maths.org for a start.

[novanova]

There is a lot of free tuition online... primary school to post-grad.

A sample:

https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.mathsonline.com.au/

http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/

[Seastallion]

Let his Thai teachers sign him up at IPST.

Is that a special program?

I live in the South....there are not nearly as many English speakers here than you might find in BKK, so it woulkd help me to know what IPST is before I go to any Thai teachers.

Thanks for your suggestion...I assume it's a good one, lol.

[Seastallion]

Thanks all for the support and input.

[aidenai]

IPST is the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and is the main organiser of contests in science, mathematics and technology in Thailand. At South East Asian contests, Thai contestants are sent abroad on behalf of them. They might be able to advise the student how he can develop to his utmost.

http://www.ipst.ac.th/web/index.php

http://www.ipst.ac.th/eng/

[DavisH]

IPST is the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology and is the main organiser of contests in science, mathematics and technology in Thailand. At South East Asian contests, Thai contestants are sent abroad on behalf of them. They might be able to advise the student how he can develop to his utmost.

http://www.ipst.ac.th/web/index.php

http://www.ipst.ac.th/eng/

Many exams in here...

http://genius.ipst.ac.th/images/Exam/

[wotsdermatter]

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, may I suggest having him tested and evaluated before going on with the prodigy and thinking his brain will stagnate if nothing is done, it will not, but he could be shamed into "dropping" his ability by his peers. Incidentally, never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim.

Edited January 2, 2016 by wotsdermatter

[gk10002000]

Please find a way to expose the kid to more advanced math topics. I am an engineer and a mathematician. I know that as a kid if I had not luckily stumbled onto some astronomy topics and readings at the library, I would not have advanced as much as I did, or even have gotten interested in the things I did. I always enjoy reading about the early geniuses, Newton, Euler, Gauss, etc. One story of Gauss is one day the kids were being bad so the teacher said nobody can go home until they sum all the numbers between 1 and 100. 1 + 2 +3 etc. All the kids got to writing. Gauss, sat there for a moment, wrote down the answer and gave it to the teacher. The teacher would not accept it, saying he must have known the answer already and that he did not calculate it. So he showed the teacher his method. 1 + 100 = 101. 2 + 99 = 101. 3 + 98 = 101. See it?

[Scott]

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, may I suggest having him tested and evaluated before going on with the prodigy and thinking his brain will stagnate if nothing is done, it will not, but he could be shamed into "dropping" his ability by his peers. Incidentally, never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim.

Although what you say is true in a clinical sense, I think many teachers occasionally run across the student who shows exceptional promise in a particular field. Most of us won't run into the next Einstein, but we need to do whatever we can to encourage students to reach their full potential.

Teaching is what teachers do; learning is what students do. In this case we have a student who may be able to learn more than most teachers can teach. Opening doors for him is the responsible thing to do.

[DavisH]

Here is another gem

http://www.tme.in.th/InExam.php

Some of these exams are in english also. The harder questions will challenge the teachers, let alone the students:) These test well about the grade level.

[bangmai]

An IBM Super Computer can perform 2,800,000,000,000 instructions per second. How long does it take to perform 1 instruction. No scientific notation, express as decimal.

I like www.brilliant.org lots of free stuff, no need to join...they even do a question of the day. It's kind of arrogant to think the teacher will always be smarter or more knowledgeable than the students.

[sirineou]

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, may I suggest having him tested and evaluated before going on with the prodigy and thinking his brain will stagnate if nothing is done, it will not, but he could be shamed into "dropping" his ability by his peers. Incidentally, never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim.

Although what you say is true in a clinical sense, I think many teachers occasionally run across the student who shows exceptional promise in a particular field. Most of us won't run into the next Einstein, but we need to do whatever we can to encourage students to reach their full potential.

Teaching is what teachers do; learning is what students do. In this case we have a student who may be able to learn more than most teachers can teach. Opening doors for him is the responsible thing to do.

I agree, mentoring needs not be limited in directly helping some one advance, but in empowering some one to advance. It is often the case that the student would surpass the teacher. This does not change the mentoring process. The mentor can still be there helping guide the process.

By the way, Kudos to you , the world needs more people like you

[Seastallion]

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, may I suggest having him tested and evaluated before going on with the prodigy and thinking his brain will stagnate if nothing is done, it will not, but he could be shamed into "dropping" his ability by his peers. Incidentally, never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim.

" never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim. "

I think that you, as a clinical psychologist, would be less pedantic about how people use words, and understand that often people communicate imprecisely.

To zero in with a very narrow definition is not very empathetic, nor is it linguistically wise.

[bangmai]

As a retired Clinical Psychologist, may I suggest having him tested and evaluated before going on with the prodigy and thinking his brain will stagnate if nothing is done, it will not, but he could be shamed into "dropping" his ability by his peers. Incidentally, never should you call a person, regardless of whom they may be, a prodigy without being able to substantiate the comment without documentation and verifiable facts. Your word alone is not sufficient evidence to support your claim.

Then how come every public school that I have ever worked at, was almost as loose with the "gifted" label, as they are with free lunches for the needy. And then there is the ADHD farce. Virtually none have had a PT Scan that would be the only way to confirm this disorder, yet you can have 10 students in a class heavily medicated with toxic drugs, just because they chase kids at recess, or won't be quiet when Ms. Widbutt is reading some amazingly boring piece of fiction.