The battle against shop lifters
Math A-lympiad final 1989-1990
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The activity

The battle against shop lifters

Try to develop different versions for the calling tree. For the shop owners in B. the limit has been reached. It's about time to fight shop lifting! There have always been customers who were a little easy on paying their bill, but nowadays it seems to be trendy to visit a series of shops and try to get away with as much as possible without paying. If they feel observed in one shop they speed to the next one and continue their proletarian shopping there. Especially the next door city feeds B. with a number of shoplifters. There has been contact with the local police resulting in the plan to develop and design a telefonic warning system. Fifteen shops will participate in this system. Dutch version
Background information

Math A-lympiad

The Mathematics A-lympiad is a real-world-mathematics-problem-solving competition for teams of students forom uppe secondary schooles, with open ended assignments.
The open assignments are designed by the A-lympiad committee, a committee residing at the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, that organizes the Mathematics A-lympiad since 1989. The aim is to elicit students to think mathematically, to solve open-ended unfamiliar problems in a creative way, to model, structure and represent problems and solutions, to work collaboratively and to communicate about mathematics. The task is set in a non-mathematical real life (often work related) situation that asks for mathematical modelling and problem solving. The final product is a report fitting the real-life context of the task.

Math in teams
During the Dutch Mathematics Day Contest students work in teams of about 3 to 4 members on an open mathematical problem solving task during a couple of hours. The product of this work is a report (and sometimes a presentation). 		Using your skills in a new setting
  • The task gives the students the opportunity to show what they have learned from mathematics and how they can use the knowledge and skills in a new situation.
  • Students can try, analyze, reason, calculate en design;
  • The (context of the) task is authentic, while the mathematics knowledge is easy to (re)use in this new situation;
  • Different teams can work 'on their own level' and this gives opportunities for differentiation;
  • There is a structure in the task from 'easy first steps' to a more complex end task.
The assessment can be focused on:
  • The completeness and correctness of the answers for the various parts;
  • the representation of calculations and the method used;
  • the use of math;
  • the argumentation and the justifications of choices and decisions;
  • the depth to which the various assignments have been answered;
  • originality and creativity in methods and solutions;
  • elements like: lay-out, readability, language, illustrations etc.


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