WINNERS OF MATHS COMPETITION IN SPAIN

From left to right: Jesús López (1st level), Mykca Semenov (3nd level) and Juan J. Plá (3rd level)

WINNERS OF MATHS COMPETITION IN GERMANY

The three winners (in the first photo) are  Luisa Wiechert (1st), Tbias Latta (2nd) and Julian Kaping (3rd).

In the second photo  we can see Margharita Eismann, a very special student who has helped us check the results and ranking of the Maths Competition and has also given away the prizes to the three winners.

WINNERS OF MATHS COMPETITION IN HUNGARY

Photo of the winners of Maths Competition in Hungary.
From the left to the right:

Zsófia Zentai (1st), Réka Vass (2nd), Máté Fenyvesi (3rd)

They are looking forward to the international part of the challenge.

EU COMPETITION # 5

Our questions this time are in harmony with the festive season.
1.-"Silent Night" is probably one of the most popular carols but do you know its origin and give us its name in 3 different languages apart from English?
2.- What do people usually eat to celebrate New Year's Eve in Italy?
3.- What is Hogmanay and where and how is it celebrated?

Note: Since not everybody will be celebrating Christmas in multicultural Europe, we also wish those celebrating Hannukah, Orthodox Christmas, Al-Hijra, Bodhi Day etc ..........our best wishes.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
SOLUTION
1.-It originated in Austria, based on a poem by Joseph Mohr and  Franz Gruber composer
2.-Many different dishes with LENTILS.
3.-New Year's Eve in Scotland. The most widespread national custom is the practice of 'first-footing' which starts immediately after midnight. This means being the first person to cross the threshold of a friend or neighbour and often involves the giving of symbolic gifts such as salt , coal, shortbread, whisky, and black bun intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder.
END OF EU COMPETITION( first leg), SECOND PART OF IT FROM THE 15TH OF JANUARY (but only among the winners or selected students (three) in each country .
Happy new Year!
We thank Macmillan Publishers office in Valencia for their support.

END OF MATHS PUZZLE COMPETITION

Puzzle number 10, of which the solution will be posted later today, has put an end to the first leg of this competition. We are awaiting the name -and photos, if possible, of the winners in each country ( up to three). There will be a small gift for all of them.
From the 10th of January we will start the competition again, but this time to decide who gets the best results among those chosen by each country (see above). The puzzles will appear every fortnight. In March we will see who the winners are.
Meanwhile, Merry Xmas to all of you!

WEEK'S PUZZLE 10

PUZZLE 10 -from the 7th to the 13th of December (to be collected by the 14th of December)

THE MAGIC NUMBER

'Free me, please', Ali begged the genius who had trapped him in a cage.
‘I will free you only if you find a number which obeys certain conditions’, the genius answered.
And these were the conditions:
1.- If the number were multiple of 2, then it would be a number between 50 and 59, both included.
2.- If it were not a multiple of 3, then it would be a number between 60 and 69, both included.
3.- If it were not a multiple of 4, then it would be a number between 70 and 79, both included.
Which was the magic number?

SOLUTION
If the number is a multiple of 2, it could be:
50, 52, 54, 56, 58
If it is not a multiple of 3, the number could be:
61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 68
If it is not a multiple of 4, the possibilities are:
70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79

By eliminating the only possibility is number 75.

VIDEO CONFERENCE 1st DECEMBER 2009

The five partner schools taking part in our Comenius Project held a videoconference on the 1st of December in which students from each school had the chance to speak face-to-face with their peers in the other schools. Being as we are five countries (the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and Spain), we had to use several PCs and pupils had to take it in turns to speak. Technology is really a challenge in this kind of activities but the sight of our students exchanging their points of views was well worth our work as teachers to prepare it. This is but the first one this academic year, now students are asking for more!!!
PHOTOS FROM VALENCIA

A PIECE OF VIDEO FROM VALENCIA

PHOTOS FROM LÜNEBURG

PHOTOS FROM AJKA

EU COMPETITION #4

First Question: The flag of Europe has a circle of 12 golden stars. Why 12??
Second Question: Could you name the highest mountain in Western Europe, the largest lake in Central Europe and the longest river in Europe?
Third Question: Can you figure out this text. It's too windy and all the vowels have blown away:
Th mst ppltd cptls n rp r: Mscw wth 8,500,000 ctzns; Lndn wth 7,000,000 nd Brln wth 3,500,000. Vtcn cty s th smllst cptl wth nly 800 ctzns!!!
If you know the answers send an e-mail to iescampanar09@gmail.com and you may win a small gift. Loads of luck!
SOLUTION:
1.- Because number 12 is considered to be the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity.
2.-The Mont Blanc; Lake Balaton and the Volga.
3.-The most populated capitals inEurope are: Moscow with 8,500,000 citizens; London with 7,000,000 and Berlin with 3,500,000. Vatican City is the smallest capital with only 800 citizens.

WEEK'S PUZZLE 9

PUZZLE 9 – from the 30th November to 6th December( to be collected by the 7th of December)
Try to find all the two-digit numbers which, when divided by the sum of their digits, have a quotient equal to 7 with no remainder.


SOLUTION
The number in polynomial form is 10a+b. Because of the condition:
(10a+b)/(a+b) = 7
10a+b = 7a + 7b
3a = 6b
a = 2b
With b= 1,2,3,4 (more it's impossible), the solutions are: 21, 42, 63, 84

WEEK'S PUZZLE 8

PUZZLE 8 – from the 23rd to the 29th of November ( to be collected by the 30th of November)

A certain four-digit number obeys the following conditions:
a) The sum of the squares of the two digits on both sides is = 13.
b) The sum of the squares of the two digits in the middle is =85.
c) If we substract 1089 from that certain four-digit number, we get another figure this time with the same digits but exactly in the opposite order.
Which number is it?


SOLUTION
Because of the conditions:
The digits on both sides are: 2, 3
The digits in the middle are: 6, 7 or 2,9

There are eight possibilities, the numbers: 2673, 2763, 3672, 3762, 2293, 2923, 3292, 3922

The solution is the number: 3762 (because 3762-1089 = 2673)

THE MEETING IN AJKA IN THE NEWS OF VALENCIA

Look "VALENCIA BUSINESS NEWS"

PHOTOS OF MEETING IN AJKA

SWITZERLAND'S PHOTOS1

SWITZERLAND'S PHOTOS2

GERMANY'S PHOTOS

CZECH REPUBLIC'S PHOTOS

EU COMPETITION #3

Here are the three questions:
1.-What nationality was J.A. Comenius? 2.-The European Commission is the EU's executive body. How many Commissioners are there in it? And how many members in the European Parliament? 3.-If a Bulgarian nods his/her head up and down, does he/she mean 'yes' or 'no' ?
Send your answers to iescampanar09@gmail.com Lots of luck!
SOLUTIONS:
1. - Moravian (from the Czech Republic). And here is one of his quotes for you to read:
'Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put aside all selfishness in consideration of language, nationality, or religion'. John Comenius
2. - 27 Commissioners, one per country. And 736 members of the EU Parliament.
3. - He/she means NO!!!

Spain's projects on Switzerland

The twenty-two students in 4ºESO C at Campanar Secondary School prepared in October some classroom projects on Switzerland, which are now on their classroom walls for everybody to see. Here are some photos of them.

Photo2

Photo3

Photo4

Photo5

Photo6

TEAMS IN AJKA (5th November 2009)

"Discovering Ajka" Power Point presentations prepared by the Comenius students distributed in different multinational groups. They had to go and discover Ajka’s sights, processed the info and create both a PPP and a postcard as well as present the photos taken and their work in front of the other students and teachers.
Team1

Team2

Team3

Team4

Video

WEEK'S PUZZLE 7

PUZZLE 7- From the 16th to the 22nd November (to be collected by the 23rd of November)

A FIERCE BATTLE
In a fierce battle, say that at least 70% of the soldiers have lost an eye; at least 75% an ear; at least 80% an arm; and at least 85% a leg.
What percentage, at least, must have lost all four? (Lewis Carroll)

SOLUTION:

At least 45% lost an eye and an ear (70+75 = 145)
At least 65% lost an arm and a leg ( 80 +85 = 165)
Therefore at least 10% lost an eye, an ear, an arm and a leg (45 + 65 = 110).

PROJECT MEETING AND PRESENTATIONS IN AJKA (4th November 2009)

 DANCING CZARDAS

Nine teachers and twenty-three students from four secondary schools in Germany, The Czech Republic, Switzerland and Spain visited the Bródy Imre Gimnázium, Szakközépiskola és Ami in Ajka, from the 3rd to the 7th of November 2009. They received us both teachers and students with typical Hungarian dances superbly performed by some of their pupils. Czardas final fast tempo spread among us all , and we kept that spirit all through our stay in Ajka since we took part in the many and very interesting activities the Hungarian school  had planned for us and which included a short trip to the charming city of Veszprém and to the beautiful lake of Balaton, often called “The Hungarian Sea”.

Our 5 partner schools teachers and students, who work on the multilateral Comenius project –“The School as the Integration Engine”,  also had working sessions together, attended some lessons and tasted some of the most delicious dishes of Hungarian cuisine. The weather was a bit cold particularly for Spanish standards but it did not matter when you are so warmly welcomed. I understand now why you say “Cold hands, warm heart”. Közönöm, Ajka! (Thanks, Ajka).

The following Power Point presentations were prepared by the different partner schools' students in their countries and later presented in Ajka in front of the rest of the Comenius students and teachers.
Presentation of Hungary by Spain

Presentation of Czech Republic by Hungary

Presentation of Germany by Czech Republic

Presentation of Spain by Germany

Presentation of Geneva by Geneva

Images of Bródy Imre Grammar School

WEEK'S PUZZLE 6

PUZZLE # 6 -from the 9th to the 15th of November (to be collected by the 16th of November)

FOUR DIGITS
This week your task is to try and find a four-digit number (abcd) so that when writing a decimal comma* between the second and the third digit (ab,cd) we get a number which is the mean or arithmetic average of the two digits which are left on both sides of the decimal comma.
*decimal comma or decimal point (ab.cd)


SOLUTION

Mentally:
The numbers are 49 and 50, because (49+50)/2 = 49,50

Mathematically:
If the number is abcd:

((10a + b) + (10c + d))/2 = 10a + b + c/10 + d/100

50 ( 10a + b) + 50 (10c + e) = 1000a + 100b + 10c + d

490c + 49d = 500a + 50b

49(10c + d) = 50(10a + b)

The only solution is 49 and 50.

WEEK'S PUZZLE 5

PUZZLE 5 -from the 2nd to the 8th of November (to be collected by the 9th of November)

THE AIRCRAFT

A light aircraft has just flown 400 kilometres. The aircraft covered the first 100 kms at a speed of 150 kph, the next 100 at 300 kph, the following 100 at 450 kph, and the last 100 at 600 kph.
Can you figure out the average speed of the aircraft on its 400 kilometres journey?

SOLUTION

t = e/v (t = time, e = space, v = velocity)

t1 = 100/150 = 2/3
t2 = 100/300 = 1/3
t3 = 100/450 = 2/9
t4 = 100/600 = 1/6

T = 2/3 + 1/3 + 2/9 + 1/6 = 25/18

v = E/ T = 400 : (25/18) = 288 kph

EU COMPETITION (#2)

Twice a month you will find three questions on the European Union and Europe. The first student answering them correctly will get a small gift. Send your answers to iescampanar09@gmail.com.
Here are this fortnight's questions: 1.-When is Europe Day celebrated each year? 2.-The EU has 23 official languages and has to publish legislation in all of them. Name 10 languages. 3.-What do these common European acronyms and abbreviations STEP ERICA ISBN stand for? --------Easy? Well, lots of luck!!!--
SOLUTIONS:
1.- 9th of May
2.-The European Union has 23 official and working languages. They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
3.-Science and Technology for Environment Protection, European Research Institute for Consumers Affairs, International Standard Book Number.

GENÈVE'S TEAM IN AJKA

WEEK'S PUZZLE 4

PUZZLE 4- from the 27th October to the 1st November(to be collected by the 2nd November)



A FOOTBALL
A polyhedron with the shape of a football has 32 sides: 20 of them are regular hexagons and 12 are regular pentagons, as you can clearly see in the picture above.
How many vertices and edges does this solid have?

SOLUTION:
The football has as many vertices as the pentagons have: 12x5=60. As for the number of edges, which are counted twice, there are as many as the edges of all the polygons: (20x6 + 12x5)/2 = 180/2 = 90.

LÜNEBURG'S TEAM IN AJKA

To give you an impression of the autumnal colours in Lüneburg at this time of the year our group poses in front of the trees around the school's little pond. From left to right:
Astrid Jacobs, Verena Krüger, Lisa Marie Heinemann, Camilla Kast, Julian Karping, Fynn Hohls, Carlotta Wichmann, René Jenkel.

WEEK'S PUZZLE 3

PUZZLE 3- from the 19th to the 25th October (to be collected by the 26th October)



A NUMEROUS FAMILY

The product of my sons’ ages is 1664. The age of the eldest is the double of my youngest son’s age. I am 50 years old myself.
How many sons have I got?
How old are they?

SOLUTION
The factorial decomposition of 1664 is the product of 13 x 2 with exponent 7. Since 13 can be neither the youngest nor the eldest son, the solution is 2 with exponent 3 = 8, 13, and 2 with exponent 4 = 16. Therefore the three sons are: 8, 13 and 16 years old.

LIPNIK'S TEAM IN THE NEXT MEETING

AJKA'S TEAM IN THE NEXT MEETING

EU Competition

Twice a month you will find three questions on the European Union and Europe. The first student answering them correctly will get a small gift.
Send your answers to iescampanar09@gmail.com
Here are the first three questions:
1.-When did the 5 countries participating in the project join the EU?
2.-Unscrabble the motto of the EU: TUINDE NI YESDRIITV
3.-Do you know which phone number you can dial to ask questions on EU matters in the official EU language of your choice?
Lots of luck!!!
SOLUTION:
1.-Hungary and the Czech Republic in 2004, Spain in 1986, Switzerland does not belong to the EU and Germany from its foundation, being considered the treaty of Rome signed in 1957 as the official date since it established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
2.- UNITED IN DIVERSITY
3.- 00 800 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

WEEK'S PUZZLE 2

PUZZLE 2* 12th -18th October (to be collected by the 19th)


AT THE CIRCUS

The most experienced trainer of a circus needs 40 minutes to wash an elephant,
his son doing the same task in 2 hours.
How long will it take them both to wash 4 elephants?
How many elephants will each of them wash?

SOLUTION TO PUZZLE 2

In two hours the son washes one elephant while his father washes 120:40 =3 elephants in the same period of time.

Thus it takes them 2 hours to wash 4 elephants since the son washes 1 while his father washes 3.

*Solution to Puzzle 1 on Tuesday, October the 13th

WEEK' S PUZZLE 1

PUZZLE 1 5th -11th October (to be collected by the 12th)

A CHESS GAME

There were 15 players in the latest chess game in which Kazimier Kaczyinski took part following the Swiss variant (all-against-all, once).
The sum of all the points obtained by all the players except Kazimier was: 100 points. How many points did Kazimier get?

Note: 1 point for a win and ½ for a draw, each player.

SOLUTION

First of all we can argue that each person plays against the other 14 players, so the number of games should be 15x14. However, if we do it this way, each game is counted twice. This is why the total number of games is actually (15x14)/2 = 105.
Since each game means 1 point of the total amount, we would have as a result 105 points.
Consequently Kazimier got 105 – 100 = 5 points.

VALENCIA'S TEAM IN AJKA

From left to right:

At the front: Marina Pingarrón, Patricia Alemany, Aida Malek, Alvaro García, Joan Josep Pla.

Behind them: Reyes Durá, Fernando Escuin, Mercedes de Villegas.

WORDSEARCH

Can you find in this WORDSEARCH the name of our Comenius project, our five countries and towns/cities?

Look the Wordsearch...

26th of September: European Day of Languages

Since the five countries that take part in the present Comenius project all use different languages, we feel it is a great idea to celebrate with our students The European Day of Languages 2009, next September the 26th, and thus, we invite all the people visiting our blog, to join this European Council initiative which includes varied national and international events, games, posters to download and the possibility to learn very interesting facts about languages. Did you know, for example, that no language is in itself more difficult than any other? -all children learn their mother tongue in the same natural way and with equal ease.

"The main aims of the European Day of Languages are to raise awareness of the rich diversity of Europe and to encourage people to learn more languages"

This is the link: http://edl.ecml.at/

The more languages you know, the more of a person you are.

THE WEEK’S PUZZLE

This is a competition in which you are supposed to solve a logical or Mathematical problem, but trying to avoid those which are usually in the Maths books and the curricula.
The 5 schools taking part in ‘The School as the Integration Engine’ Comenius Project are invited to take part in it. That is secondary schools from Lüneburg (Germany), Lipník (Czech Republic), Ajka (Hungary), Geneva (Switzerland) and Valencia (Spain).
The competition will run along the months of October, November and December. Every Tuesday a problem/puzzle will be uploaded on the project blog:
http://schoolintegrationengine.blogspot.com/
The deadline to offer a possible solution will be the following Monday. The next day, a Tuesday then, the solution will be uploaded for everybody to check. The last problem is due to appear on December the 7th.
Each school will select afterwards 3 students with the most correct answers , in three different levels according to their ages or levels. For each level , there will be later in December ONE more puzzle/problem to figure out who is the champion among the chosen students of all the countries participating in each level. Before Christmas these students will get a small gift in their own schools.
The photos and names of the winners will later be shown on the blog..

GERMAN SCHOOL CELEBRATION

THE GERMAN SCHOOL CELEBRATES THE COMENIUS PROJECT APPROVAL

Dear you all,

I just wanted to show you that we have already started with the official part of the project by putting the Comenius-plate next to our school name at the entrance. This will also soon be found in the article (in German) of our homepage: http://www.gym-oedeme.de/.

PROJECT PRESENTATION

HOLA! HALLO! AHOJ! SZIA! HELLO!

PRESENTATION
The teachers in the present project want to highlight the great role the school plays in the improvement of the students` integration within society since we are all necessary, to make it work properly no matter what our differences are.
We think there are several ways to get best results in this integration:
-By implementing students' motivation in the learning process and so achieve one of the EU goals of
accelerating the improvements of the end-of-studies rate in secondary schools. We also want to implement the basic crosscurricular competences: learnig to learn, self and peer assessment, etc...
-Doing our best to make the learning process at school most attractive, especially for migrants and the
economically and socially disadvantaged getting an inclusion-friendly environment at school and a future social sustainable development.
-By concentrating after needs analysis on the design of materials and approaches which will be tested, evaluated and finally disseminated, focusing on ICT technology working on a common web portal created for the project and the partner schools.
The points raised above involve interaction so the study and use of several foreign languages is a priority for us to let us all integrate in Europe


AIMS:
Every school has a different context but we share a common interest in getting the same goals together since we all feel we belong to a supranational entity which is the EU. We cannot achieve our goals on our own. We want to exchange experiences and schemes on how each country copes with today's economical crisis. It is sure that this will mean more migration and fluxes, and thus the need for acquiring a better education in order to be able to move and enjoy a job mobility if necessary is a must. Our aim is to develop and improve our students' competence in the use of LANGUAGE and communication. We understand this can be done by implementing students' reading skills, by their use and practice of foreign languages, by implementing the use of THE language of all sciences: Mathematics and finally by making them use all their skills and be the best they can in today's global world using the ICT tools they will need in the future.
We want to work on multicultural topics in order to improve tolerance of those students who belong to the majority in the given country so that they can accept and help their mates belonging to any kind of minority, since these pupils are the most vulnerable to social and economical exclusion. As a result we can reach the integration of minority groups without their assimilation, increasing this way their equal opportunities. We want to list and describe both minority groups in every participating country with special interest in the groups overwhelming at a certain region and also the possibilities of at home majority but abroad minority groups in the labour market of the European Union. We believe migration is a transnational issue and it is necessary to implement tolerance in our schools because that will also improve tolerance and respect in our society. We also feel sport is a good tool to deal with issues such as active citizenship, intercultural dialogue and community participation.
Because we all believe in the EU and its role as an integrating machine in its geographical, cultural and
multilingual identity. The four countries that take part in this project, Germany, Hungary, Spain and the
Czech Republic are in the EU but some of them are a kind of link between two different continents. We know globalization, while opening up new opportunities for economic and social development, presents a challenge to cultural and religious identities of nations. But today's problems ignore national boundaries. The different teachers in this project all believe in a multicultural environment where all cultures can coexist. Our students may have different languages, nationalities, learning styles and difficulties,
personalities, interests, hopes and dreams. However, all of us think that we will act as ONE school and ONE classroom during this project, where the most important thing to work on is progress through diversity, real EU values, a spirit of acceptance and openmindedness and also about new ideas, creativity and problem-solving as a medium to innovation since we want to celebrate the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. Both students and teachers intend to work actively in the project - we have already done so in its design too, as we know that if you are passionate about something, there will always be someone to listen to you and someone with the same passion.

SCHOOLS TAKING PART IN IT:
*Gymnasium Oedeme. LÜNEBURG (Germany)
*Gymnázium, Lipník nad Becvou Komenského sady62, LIPNÍK NAD BECVOU (The Czech Republic)
*Bródy Imre Gimnázium, Szakközépiskola és AMI. AJKA (Hungary)
*IES Campanar. VALENCIA (España) Coordinating Centre.


NON-EU SCHOOLS:
We also have the point of view of a non-EU country, Switzerland, which will offer us a new perspective from a different angle. The Coordinator of the present project contacted both EU and Swiss authorities to check if it was possible for Switzerland to join us. Actually, they were already funded to attend the Preparatory Visit for this project that was held in Lüneburg, Germany. (23-27 November 2008).
The school name is:
Collège Sismondi .GENEVA (Switzerland)

PREPARATORY VISIT IN LÜNEBURG (NOVEMBER 2008)

SCHOOLS TAKING PART IN IT:
*Gymnasium Oedeme. LÜNEBURG (Germany)
*Gymnázium, Lipník nad Becvou Komenského sady62, LIPNÍK NAD BECVOU (The Czech Republic)
*Bródy Imre Gimnázium, Szakközépiskola és AMI. AJKA (Hungary)
*Sismondi College Geneve (Switzerland)

*IES Campanar. VALENCIA (España) Coordinating Centre.