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The Caribou Mathematics Competition is a series of free online mathematics competitions, currently open to students from Canada in Grades 3/4, Grades 5/6, and Grades 7/8 and since 2012/13 also for Grades 9/10 and Grades 11/12. The contest web page forms an online resource of practice material that is available to anyone around the world. Founded and directed by Dr. Thomas Wolf, Professor of Mathematics at Brock University, Caribou is intended to promote the enjoyment of mathematics, and to assist children in developing skill in solving mathematics problems.
Contests
On each of six days in a school year, three separate contests are available from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm local time, one at each of the grade levels 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, 9/10 and 11/12. All grade 3/4 contests and the first contest in October each school year are free, further contests for grades 5-12 require a fee of $10.00 CAD for one student for the whole year. Teachers register for the contest online, and receive a requested number of passwords. On the day of the contest, teachers distribute the passwords to their students, who then have one hour to complete a contest. Each contest consists of 12 (grade 3/4), 18 (grade 5/6) or 24 (grades 7-12) multiple choice questions which include one interactive question. At the end of a contest day, teachers receive an email message with their students' scores (including their ranks within the school, school board, province, and the entire country), which are tabulated and stored automatically. Each contestant may download and print (only for himself or herself) a personalized certificate of completion, including the name of the contest, the score achieved, and the student's ranking.
Home-schooled children may participate with the cooperation of a local school or public library.
Contests are currently open to children across Canada, and can be taken in either English and French. The other resources of the Caribou web site, including all past contests (that many students use for practice), are freely available to anyone in the world.
Unique Features
The contest has a number of unique features that set it apart from other mathematics contests for elementary school students:
* The contests are conducted online, so students can participate in their own schools, supervised by one of the school's teachers. This makes it easier for students in remote areas to participate.
* The first contest in the school year is free for all age groups as well as all grade 3/4 contests.
* Contest results are available at the end of a day when the contest is run. Personalized participation certificates, with a student's results, can be printed from the web page.
* The contest web page gives free access to all previous contests.
* Practice tests can be done online, followed by immediate feedback on which problems were solved correctly.
* Each contest contains an interactive question which features a mathematical game.
* The contests are run multiple times each year for each age group.
* All contests are offered in both English and French.
* Prizes are awarded for the top scorers overall in all of the contests held in a year (The Caribou Cup).
* The Caribou web page is dynamic, with a new Calcrostic puzzle posted every day, and the solution to the previous day's puzzle.
* The task for teachers administering the contest in their schools is minimal, and requires very little time. In particular, teachers are not required to grade the contests, because Caribou's software does the grading automatically. Also, teachers do not need to be involved into collecting fees. They can enable parents or other sponsors to pay and thus concentrate fully on running the contests.
* Contest dates for the entire school year are announced well before the beginning of each school year, allowing for easy planning.
Archive
All past Caribou contests (and some Kangaroo contests) are freely available as well as video solutions to some problems and mathematical games that appeared in any contests. The Caribou site also records detailed statistics on results of previous contests, number of practice tests attempted, and other overall statistics, which may be of interest to mathematics educators and administrators.
History
The first Caribou contest took place on 12 March 2009 for Grades 3 and 4, and was available only in the Niagara Peninsula. From this first successful run, Caribou has expanded steadily. The Caribou contests were made available across Ontario in September 2009, and the first contest for Grades 5 and 6 took place on 14 October 2009. In October 2010 the contest will become available across Canada, and contests for each of the 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8 Grade levels will run simultaneously on each of six contest days. In the school year 2012/13 contests for grades 9/10 and 11/12 were added.
Funding
Caribou is run almost entirely as a volunteer initiative. Brock University hosts the contest, provides computer hardware and systems support, and funded prizes in the 2009/2010 school year. The Fields Institute sponsors Caribou for the 2010/2011 academic year. Past sponsors include the District School Board of Niagara and the Niagara Catholic District School Board. A full list of sponsors can be found at the Caribou web site. Since the 2012/13 school year a partial fee is required.